I stumbled upon Besieged on TV. The film's views of Rome brought back my homesickness. It's funny how, to me, Lazio's natural summer light reminded me a bit of a similar luminescence in next-door France. Lazio is the region in central Italy where Rome is located. I found the film and its premise intriguing even though one might do well to doubt that the dynamics in Besieged reflect what usually takes place between many women refugees and local men in countries of refuge. Yet this film does shed light on two people in a situation where marginalised Blacks such as refugees (including in Europe) are largely ignored and actively rendered transparent or totally invisible in all forms of media. The African refugee housekeeper role is a good one for actress Thandie Newton, who actually is African and European, and not Black American as some roles she's taken. Interesting that Newton's character in Besieged is a refugee and a student. Perhaps a metaphor for the difficult present and brighter future, and maybe even a future that's relatively secure. In Italy and elsewhere in Europe daily life for African refugees is quite difficult. So I wonder exactly how many refugees and Black women refugees in Rome, in Europe and elsewhere actually are able and allowed to do academic studies in their country of refuge. Few to none, I suspect. On another note, isn't David Thewlis physically miscast? Sorry. In the film he portrays an expat Brit pianist living in Rome, and in whose home Newton's character works. But there's just something about the actor that makes him less than credible as a man whom some women might see as attractive. Is Thewlis trying to project a more "macho" stance for his character? That perception may be wrong but it feels that way to me. I also find Thewlis's overbite... distracting. Back to the interpersonal. In one scene Newton's character goes dancing with a male friend. It's a bit amusing to wonder how that scene might look and feel if Thewlis's character as portrayed would have gone out with the same friend. Even platonically. De toutes facons I am proud of this Bernardo Bertolucci film and the fact it's an Italian production. Despite the "woman's man" 'believability' problem for Thewlis and his character, I intend to see Besieged at least once again.

With each trip to the video store, I kept passing by "Besieged." Its cover always appealed to me, but not enough to rent it at the given time. Now, thanks to my newfound appreciation of David Thewlis, I have finally rented it.I must say, this strange "love story" was rather to my liking. I found both Mr. Thewlis and Ms. Newton to be very talented and able actors. The music score is fantastic with its blending of styles. So is the scenery. One thing, however, made me cringe (if only slightly). It was the very abrupt way of switching between some shots. It didn't go on throughout the entire movie (thankfully), but it was frequent enough to disorient me. In my opinion, the story/movie would've been just a tad better without that.All in all, a very good movie (minus the sometimes strange camera work), and I heartily recommend it.

SLIGHT SPOILERSI can't fairly claim Bernardo Bertolucci as one of my favorite filmmakers, because I've seen relatively few of his films. However, he did make my third favorite film of all time, Last Tango in Paris. Besides Besieged, the only other film of his I'd seen was The Last Emperor, which I like very much, also. Now, I vividly remember seeing the episode of Siskel & Ebert (or whatever it was called at the time that this film was released) and hearing Ebert proclaim that Besieged was racist and crying, "What has happened to Bertolucci? He used to make these beautiful and personal films!" I want to know what the hell movie he saw in place of Besieged, because the Besieged I saw was "beautiful and personal," and it was certainly not "racist." The film is about an African woman (Thandie Newton, who was later to star opposite Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible II, which I now have to see) whose husband was arrested for political reasons (we're never really told in which country they lived, nor is the political climate explained or described). Some time late (that, too, is unspecified), she immigrates to Italy where she is hired as a live-in maid by an English pianist (David Thewlis). He is extraordinarily shy and inhibited; he barely even leaves his lavish home. Soon, he is attracted to Newton's exoticism and tells her he is in love with her, even asks her to marry him. She's terribly offended and feels used: she shouts that she already has a husband, and that he was arrested in Africa. Thewlis yields from his pursuit, and, because of his guilt (and also because he is still attracted to her), he begins on a quest to find and set free Newton's husband. What results is one of the more complex films of the past few years. The art film is not dead. Bertolucci's direction is filled with interesting angles, camera movements, colors, jump cuts, and all sorts of beautiful and effective tricks. The only thing I didn't like was the use of slow motion - that's one technique that is difficult to use well in the cinema, and, with hand-held cameras, it looks awful. A couple of individual scenes were clunky, especially the scene in which Thewlis declares his love for Newton. It's not bad, per se, but, well, like I said, it's a bit clunky, if you know what I mean. It doesn't work completely. The film relies on very little dialogue, which makes the whole thing more sublime. Thandie Newton and David Thewlis are both excellent. I can't wait to see Newton in other films. To answer Ebert's claim of racism, if he had said that Thewlis' character was a racist, then that would have been understandable. His "love" is just lust, and what he is really attracted to is her Africanness, her exoticness. And also her perceived primitiveness. This is not an uncommon attraction, even if it is offensive. But these feelings are actually DEALT with, they're not just simply accepted. Ebert also said that the goal of the film, its entire point, was to get to the sex. Not so. The way Thewlis uses and manipulates Newton caused me pain. It caused HER pain. The final scene is just overflowing with power. I loved this film. Please see it and see it with an open mind. 9/10.

Looks to me like old man Bertolucci is losing his hand. His chronicles of unrequited love and passion gone mad have grown ever less poignant since "Last Tango" (his apex IMHO), as "Stealing Beauty" had shown us before. Here we have an implausible refugee (carried out with talent by the still not mature, though very promising, Thandie Newton) from an imaginary African nation meet with her also unlikely English landlord and boss (in Rome, of all places!) and how the story of their difficult relationship unfolds. Add to that some vague references to political disturbance in said imaginary country and a distant husband held as a political prisoner, stir well and presto: instant artistic film with political undertones. Sadly, inspiration was not one of the ingredients in the mixture and the result shows: not so subtle camera tricks, sparse and boring dialogue. View it if you must (if you are a fan of Bertolucci's, as I confess to being) but this is far away from his best.