Stealing Beauty . Tucson Weekly . 06-27-96

Stealing Beauty

DIRECTED BY: Bernardo Bertolucci

REVIEWED: 06-27-96

Bernardo Bertolucci splashes around with both the MTV and the Masterpiece Theater generations in this coming-of-age movie set in the Italian country side. Beautiful shots, sets, and actors, hallmarks of any Bertolucci film, make Stealing Beauty easy on the eyes--and Liv Tyler, the gorgeous 17-year-old star, doesn't hurt either. Tyler handles herself with ease and dignity as she plays the role of an American virgin aiming to get herself deflowered while a bored group of cosmopolitan grown-ups egg her on. Sometimes though, it seems like the camera lingers a little too obsessively on the upper region of the inner seam of her tight jeans, and it's hard to escape the sensation that perhaps this is just a classy way for Bertolucci to act like a dirty old man. The screenplay, by author Susan Minot, is disappointingly flat; but Tyler is so entrancing it hardly matters.

--Stacey Richter

Other Films by Bernardo Bertolucci
Besieged
The Last Emperor

Film Vault Suggested Links
The Tango Lesson
Lovers on the Bridge
Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl

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