FILM SCREENINGS

The Sheltering Sky

1990. Great Britain/Italy. Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Based on the novel by Paul Bowles. With Debra Winger, John Malkovich, Campbell Scott. Bertolucci’s drama sends an American couple deep into the Sahara desert, where they discover the transporting power of landscape and culture, and learn the distinction between being a tourist and a traveler. Kit (an incandescent Winger) and Porter (Malkovich) put themselves in unknown territory in an attempt to inject passion into their ten-year marriage. Bertolucci’s cinematic preoccupations with travel and sexual pluralism converge in this rich and haunting film, which brings to life the intimate details of longing and loneliness. The award-winning score by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Richard Horowitz adds subtle texture to Vittorio Storaro’s otherworldly images of the Sahara desert at its most seductive. 138 min.