Review of Stealing Beauty (2007) by Rob S — 26 Jul 2011

I think this movie's gotten a bad rap. Yeah, it's idealistic and focuses on a naive character. It's about a girl losing her virginity! Does she have to be raped and disillusioned for a movie to earn artsy cred? If anyone paid attention to the subplots and supporting characters, her happy ending was definitely the exception to the rule.

The cynicism and irony of Bertolucci's earlier movies is still here, its simply refined to the point of being very difficult to detect. Had I not known what to expect, I would have found several scenes poorly scripted or unintentionally artificial, but in fact, the almost-choreographed party scene and the rushed dinner gathering toward the end are subtler forms of the commentary we find in Last Tango in Paris or Il Conformista.