La Luna **** (1979, Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, Renato Salvatori, Tomas Milian, Alida Valli, Fred Gwynne, Roberto Benigni, Veronica Lazar) – Classic Movie Review 7835

Director Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1979 incestuous relationship drama La Luna is a frank exploration of the emotional and sexual bonds of a recently-widowed American mother and her teenage son while touring in Italy.

Though the film is overlong at 143 minutes, Bertolucci turns in an involving tale about the physical and psychological journey made by a desperate opera singer diva and her heroin-addicted 15-year-old son.

Jill Clayburgh is terrific as Caterina Silveri, Matthew Barry is just right as the 15-year-old Joe, and with a tighter structure this beautiful piece would have been a total tour de force. As it is, La Luna is a film of great artistic merit. It starts powerfully, and continues to maintain its strange, Freudian grip throughout, while the ending is breathtaking.

Also in the fascinating cast are Renato Salvatori, Tomas Milian, Alida Valli, Fred Gwynne, Roberto Benigni, Veronica Lazar, Elisabetta Campetti, Peter Eyre, Carlo Verdone, Laura Betti and Franco Citti.

Clayburgh studied opera singing under an Italian opera soprano and took a course in Italian.

La Luna is directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, runs 143 minutes, is made by Fiction Cinematografica S.p.a. and Twentieth Century Fox, is released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Giuseppe Bertolucci (story and writer), Bernardo Bertolucci (story and writer), Clare Peploe (writer), Franco Arcalli (story) and George Malko, is shot by Vittorio Storaro, and is produced by Giovanni Bertolucci, scored by Ennio Morricone, and designed by Gianni Silvestri and Maria Paola Maino.

The film is dedicated to story writer Franco Arcalli.

RIP important Italian film-maker Bernardo Bertolucci, who died of cancer on 26 November 2018, aged 77, in Rome. He is remembered as ‘one of the greats’ for The Last Emperor, Last Tango in Paris, and The Conformist.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7835

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