Stealing Beauty (
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
:
Beauté volée;
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
:
Io ballo da sola) is a
1996The year 1996 in film involved some significant events. Major releases this year included Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Independence Day, Twister, Scream, Jerry Maguire and Madonna's Evita.-Events:...
drama filmA drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, crime and corruption put the characters in conflict with themselves,...
directed by Academy Award-winning
ItalianThe history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had discovered the medium, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...
filmmaker
Bernardo BertolucciBernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, probably best known for such films as Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor, Stealing Beauty, and The Dreamers.-Early years and background:...
and written by Bertolucci and
Susan MinotSusan Minot /'maɪ.nət/ is a prize-winning American novelist and short story writer.Minot was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She attended Brown University, where she studied writing and painting; in 1983 she graduated from Columbia University School of the Arts with an M.F.A. in creative writing....
. It stars
Liv TylerLiv Rundgren Tyler is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler, and Bebe Buell, model and singer. Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of 14, but after less than a year she decided to focus on acting. She made her film debut in the 1994...
,
Joseph FiennesJoseph Alberic Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English film and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayals of William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, Sir Robert Dudley in Elizabeth, Commisar Danilov in Enemy at the Gates, Martin Luther in Luther, and Mark Benford in the 2009 TV...
,
Jeremy IronsJeremy John Irons is an English film, television, and stage actor. He has won the Academy Award, the Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to many other awards and honors....
, and
Rachel WeiszRachel Hannah Weisz is an English actress and model. She gained wide public recognition after her portrayal of Evelyn "Evy" Carnahan-O'Connell in the films The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. In 2001, she starred opposite Hugh Grant in the hit About a Boy and continued to garner leading roles in...
. The film focuses on an American teenage girl who travels to a lush Italian
villaA villa was originally an upper-class country house, though since its origins in Roman times the idea and function of a villa has evolved considerably. After the fall of the Republic, a villa became a small, fortified farming compound, gradually re-evolving through the Middle Ages into luxurious,...
to stay with family friends of her poet mother who recently committed
suicideSuicide is the intentional killing of one's self. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"...
. The film was actress Liv Tyler's first lead role, which garnered her critical attention, and because of this, is often seen as a starting point for her film career.
While the film takes place in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, the primary language spoken by the characters is
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
- however,
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
,
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
,
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
, and
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
are also spoken by several of the characters through the course of the film.
Stealing Beauty premiered in Italy in March 1996, and was officially selected for the
1996 Cannes Film Festival-Jury:*Francis Ford Coppola *Nathalie Baye *Greta Scacchi, actrice *Michael Ballhaus *Henry Chapier *Atom Egoyan *Eiko Ishioka *Krzysztof Piesiewicz *Antonio Tabucchi...
in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
in May.
Stealing Beauty (
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
:
Beauté volée;
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
:
Io ballo da sola) is a
1996The year 1996 in film involved some significant events. Major releases this year included Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Independence Day, Twister, Scream, Jerry Maguire and Madonna's Evita.-Events:...
drama filmA drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, crime and corruption put the characters in conflict with themselves,...
directed by Academy Award-winning
ItalianThe history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had discovered the medium, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...
filmmaker
Bernardo BertolucciBernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, probably best known for such films as Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor, Stealing Beauty, and The Dreamers.-Early years and background:...
and written by Bertolucci and
Susan MinotSusan Minot /'maɪ.nət/ is a prize-winning American novelist and short story writer.Minot was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She attended Brown University, where she studied writing and painting; in 1983 she graduated from Columbia University School of the Arts with an M.F.A. in creative writing....
. It stars
Liv TylerLiv Rundgren Tyler is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler, and Bebe Buell, model and singer. Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of 14, but after less than a year she decided to focus on acting. She made her film debut in the 1994...
,
Joseph FiennesJoseph Alberic Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English film and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayals of William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, Sir Robert Dudley in Elizabeth, Commisar Danilov in Enemy at the Gates, Martin Luther in Luther, and Mark Benford in the 2009 TV...
,
Jeremy IronsJeremy John Irons is an English film, television, and stage actor. He has won the Academy Award, the Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to many other awards and honors....
, and
Rachel WeiszRachel Hannah Weisz is an English actress and model. She gained wide public recognition after her portrayal of Evelyn "Evy" Carnahan-O'Connell in the films The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. In 2001, she starred opposite Hugh Grant in the hit About a Boy and continued to garner leading roles in...
. The film focuses on an American teenage girl who travels to a lush Italian
villaA villa was originally an upper-class country house, though since its origins in Roman times the idea and function of a villa has evolved considerably. After the fall of the Republic, a villa became a small, fortified farming compound, gradually re-evolving through the Middle Ages into luxurious,...
to stay with family friends of her poet mother who recently committed
suicideSuicide is the intentional killing of one's self. Many dictionaries also note the metaphorical sense of "willful destruction of one's self-interest"...
. The film was actress Liv Tyler's first lead role, which garnered her critical attention, and because of this, is often seen as a starting point for her film career.
While the film takes place in
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
, the primary language spoken by the characters is
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
- however,
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
,
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
,
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
, and
GermanGerman is a West Germanic language, thus related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. It is one of the world's major languages and the most widely spoken first language in the European Union. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million native speakers and also by...
are also spoken by several of the characters through the course of the film.
Stealing Beauty premiered in Italy in March 1996, and was officially selected for the
1996 Cannes Film Festival-Jury:*Francis Ford Coppola *Nathalie Baye *Greta Scacchi, actrice *Michael Ballhaus *Henry Chapier *Atom Egoyan *Eiko Ishioka *Krzysztof Piesiewicz *Antonio Tabucchi...
in
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
in May. It was released in the United States on June 14, 1996.
Plot
Lucy Harmon, an American teenager is arriving in the lush Tuscan countryside to be sculpted by a family friend who lives in a beautiful villa there. Lucy visited there four years earlier and exchanged a kiss with an Italian boy with whom she hopes to become reacquainted. Lucy's mother has committed suicide since then, and she also hopes to discover the identity of her father, whom her mother hinted was a resident of the villa. Once she arrives, Lucy meets and befriends a variety of eccentric locals who were companions of her mother, and begins to form relationships and connections with each of them. Lucy has decided to lose her virginity and becomes an object of intense interest to the men of the household, but the suitor she finally selects is not the initial object of her affection.
Cast
- Liv Tyler
Liv Rundgren Tyler is an American actress and model. She is the daughter of Aerosmith's lead singer, Steven Tyler, and Bebe Buell, model and singer. Tyler began a career in modeling at the age of 14, but after less than a year she decided to focus on acting. She made her film debut in the 1994...
as Lucy Harmon
- Sinéad Cusack
Sinéad Moira Cusack is an Irish actress.-Background:Cusack was born Jane Moira Cusack, the daughter of Maureen and Cyril Cusack, both actors. She is the sister of actresses Sorcha Cusack, Niamh Cusack and half sister to Catherine Cusack...
as Diana Grayson
- Donal McCann
Donal McCann was an Irish stage, film, and television actor.-Early life:McCann was born in Terenure in Dublin. His father was John J. McCann, a playwright and politician who served twice as Dublin's Lord Mayor...
as Ian Grayson
- Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English film, television, and stage actor. He has won the Academy Award, the Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to many other awards and honors....
as Alex Parrish
- Jean Marais
Jean-Alfred Villain-Marais , was a French actor and director.-Biography:A native of Cherbourg, France, Marais starred in several movies directed by Jean Cocteau, for a time his lover, most famously Beauty and the Beast and Orphée .In the 1950s, Marais became a star of swashbuckling pictures,...
as M. Guillaume
- Rachel Weisz
Rachel Hannah Weisz is an English actress and model. She gained wide public recognition after her portrayal of Evelyn "Evy" Carnahan-O'Connell in the films The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. In 2001, she starred opposite Hugh Grant in the hit About a Boy and continued to garner leading roles in...
as Miranda Fox
- Joseph Fiennes
Joseph Alberic Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English film and stage actor. He is perhaps best known for his portrayals of William Shakespeare in Shakespeare in Love, Sir Robert Dudley in Elizabeth, Commisar Danilov in Enemy at the Gates, Martin Luther in Luther, and Mark Benford in the 2009 TV...
as Christopher Fox
- D. W. Moffett as Richard Reed
Soundtrack listing
- Hooverphonic
Hooverphonic is a Belgian rock/pop group, formed in 1995. Though early on categorized as a trip hop group, they quickly expanded their sound to the point where they could no longer be described as a lone genre, but rather encompass alternative, electronica, electropop, rock, and mixture of others....
: "2 WickyA New Stereophonic Sound Spectacular is the first album by the Belgian band Hooverphonic when the band was only known as Hoover. It was the only album with singer Liesje Sadonius. The song "2 Wicky" was featured in the movies Stealing Beauty by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, I Know What You...
" (written by Burt BacharachBurt F. Bacharach is an American pianist and composer. He is known for his pop hits from the early 1960s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David, many of which were produced for and recorded by Dionne Warwick....
)
- Portishead
Portishead are an English musical group from Bristol. The band is named after the nearby town of the same name, west of Bristol...
: "Glory BoxGlory box may refer to:*a hope chest, a box containing items typically stored by unmarried young women in anticipation of future marriages or married lives*"Glory Box", a song by Portishead from their 1994 album Dummy...
" (written by Geoff BarrowGeoffrey Paul Barrow is the producer/instrumentalist for Portishead.Portishead—formed in 1991—was named after the small town near Bristol where Barrow grew up...
)
- Axiom Funk
Funkcronomicon is a 1995 various artists collection of tracks produced by Bill Laswell under the title Axiom Funk. It is a 2-CD set that was released by Island Records. "Funkcronomicon" features heavy participation from various members of Parliament-Funkadelic, to the degree that "Funkcronomicon"...
: "If 6 Was 9"If 6 Was 9" is a song written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It appeared on the release of their 1967 album Axis: Bold as Love and on the soundtrack for the 1969 film Easy Rider.-Style and instrumentation:...
" (written by Jimi HendrixJames Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter...
)
- John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker was an African American singer-songwriter and blues guitarist, born in Coahoma County near Clarksdale, Mississippi. Hooker began his life as the son of a sharecropper, William Hooker, and rose to prominence performing his own unique style of what was originally closest to Delta blues...
: "Annie Mae"
- Liz Phair
Elizabeth Clark "Liz" Phair is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist.Phair began her career in the early 1990s by self-releasing lo-fi audio cassettes under the moniker Girly Sound, before signing with Matador Records and becoming one of the leading artists of the 1990s DIY indie rock...
: "Rocket Boy"
- Stevie Wonder
Stevie Wonder is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Blind from birth, Wonder signed with Motown Records at the age of eleven, and continues to perform and record for the label. He has recorded more than thirty U.S...
: "Superstition"Superstition" is a popular song written, produced, arranged, and performed by Stevie Wonder for Motown Records in 1972, when Wonder was twenty-two years old. It was included on Wonder's Talking Book album, and released as a single in many countries. It reached number one in the USA, and number one...
"
- Nina Simone
Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist....
: "My Baby Just Cares For Me"My Baby Just Cares for Me" is a jazz standard written by Walter Donaldson with lyrics by Gus Kahn. It was one of three hit songs from the 1928 musical Whoopee, starring Eddie Cantor . It is best known as the signature tune of singer and pianist Nina Simone.
-Nina Simone...
" (written by Walter DonaldsonWalter Donaldson was a prolific United States popular songwriter, producing many hit songs of the 1910s and 1920s....
)
- Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed Lady Day by her loyal friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing...
: "I'll Be Seeing You"I'll Be Seeing You" is a popular song from the Broadway musical Right This Way, which closed after fifteen performances. Its music was written by Sammy Fain, the lyrics by Irving Kahal. The song was published in 1938....
" (written by Sammy FainSammy Fain was an American composer of popular music.-Biography:Sammy Fain was born in New York City. In 1923, Fain appeared with Artie Dunn in a short film directed by Lee De Forest filmed in DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on-film process...
)
- Mazzy Star
Mazzy Star is an American alternative rock band formed in Santa Monica in 1989 from the group Opal, a collaboration of guitarist David Roback and bassist Kendra Smith...
: "Rhymes Of An HourAmong My Swan is the third album by the band Mazzy Star. Although Among My Swan did not contain any US Billboard Hot 100 hits like its predecessor, So Tonight That I Might See, this album did garner the band its highest-ranking single on the UK Singles Chart, when "Flowers In December" reached #40...
" (written by Hope SandovalHope Sandoval is an American singer-songwriter who is the lead singer for Mazzy Star and Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions.-Early life and career:...
)
- Cocteau Twins
The Cocteau Twins were a Scottish alternative music band active from 1979 to 1997, known for complex instrumentation and atmospheric, nonlyrical vocals....
: "AliceLullabies to Violaine is a Cocteau Twins boxset released by 4AD Records in October 2005. Comprising four CDs, the boxset collects the tracks from every Cocteau Twin EP from "Lullabies" to "Violaine".- CD One :#Lullabies...
"
- Lori Carson
Lori Carson is a singer/songwriter. She has released several solo albums, appeared on many soundtracks, and collaborated with The Golden Palominos. She performed lead vocals on the song "In the Middle of the Night" on French producer Hector Zazou's album Strong Currents...
: "You Won't Fall"
- Sam Phillips
Samuel Cornelius Phillips , better known as Sam Phillips, was an American record producer who played an important role in the emergence of rock and roll as the major form of popular music in the 1950s...
: "I Need Love"
HoleHole was a Grammy-nominated American alternative rock band that formed in Los Angeles in 1989 and disbanded in 2002. The band was fronted by vocalist/rhythm guitarist Courtney Love, who co-founded Hole with songwriter/lead guitarist Eric Erlandson. Hole achieved considerable commercial success...
's song "Olympia" (AKA 'Rockstar') was also used in the film. Tyler was shown dancing and singing wildly along to the track, listening with her headphones and walkman.
Critical reception
The critical reception for the film was mildly negative, with some critics praising the Italian setting and the slow pace, while others criticised it for its apparent self-indulgence, and lack of character development and drama.
According to
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel...
of the
Chicago Sun-TimesThe Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is owned by the Sun-Times Media Group, which filed for bankruptcy protection on March 31, 2009.-History:...
, who gave it 2/4 stars, "The movie plays like the kind of line a rich older guy would lay on a teenage model, suppressing his own intelligence and irony in order to spread out before her the wonderful world he would like to give her as a gift....The problem here is that many 19-year-old women, especially the beautiful international model types, would rather stick cocaine up their noses and go to discos with thugs on motorcycles than have all Tuscany as their sandbox."
Critics such as
Desson ThomsonDesson Patrick Thomson is a speaker, movie reviewer and cultural commentator who wrote film reviews for 21 years as a critic for The Washington Post. Based in Washington DC, he speaks professionally at conventions, seminars, Sunday movie chats, and other events. He also blogs and reviews movies on...
of the
Washington Post,
Mick LaSalleMick LaSalle is an American film critic currently writing for the San Francisco Chronicle and the author of two books on pre-code Hollywood. As of March 2008, he has written in excess of 1550 reviews , and he has been podcasting them since September 2005...
of the
San Francisco Chroniclethumb|right|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireSan Francisco Chronicle is Northern California's largest newspaper, and one of the largest in the United States, serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area, but distributed throughout...
, and
James BerardinelliJames Berardinelli is an American online film critic.-Biography:Berardinelli was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and spent his early childhood in Morristown. At the age of nine, he moved to Cherry Hill. He attended the University of Pennsylvania from 1985 through 1990, obtaining both a BS and...
of ReelViews gave negative reviews, with Berardinelli in particular, calling the movie 'an atmosphere study, lacking characters', and Thompson calling it 'inscrutable'.
Others, such as
Jonathan RosenbaumJonathan Rosenbaum is an American film critic. Rosenbaum was the head film critic for the Chicago Reader from 1987 until 2008, when he retired at the age of 65...
of
Chicago Reader,
Peter TraversPeter Travers is an American film critic, who has written for, in turn, People and Rolling Stone. Travers also hosts a celebrity interview show called Popcorn on ABC News Now and ABCNews.com.-Career:...
of
Rolling StoneRolling Stone is a United States-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J. Gleason.The magazine was named after the 1948 Muddy Waters song of the same...
,
Janet MaslinJanet Maslin is an American journalist. She is best known as a film and literary critic for The New York Times.-Personal:Maslin graduated from the University of Rochester in 1970, with a B.A. degree and a major in mathematics . She was once married to record producer Jon Landau...
of
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded in 1851 and published in New York City. The largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States, "The Gray Lady"—named for its staid appearance and style—is regarded as a national newspaper of record...
, and
Jack MathewsJack Nicholsen Mathews is a Canadian musician and actor. He was a member of the alternative rock group Leslie Spit Treeo in the late 1980s and early 1990s...
of the
Los Angeles TimesThe Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California since 1881. It is distributed throughout the Western United States. It is the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States and the fourth-most widely distributed newspaper in the United States...
were more positive, with Rosenbaum in particular praising the movie's 'mellowness' and 'charm'.
The film currently holds a 51% or 'Rotten' rating at
Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films. The name derives from the historical cliché of throwing tomatoes and other produce at stage performers if a performance was particularly bad.- History :...
.