The Sheltering Sky
Encyclopedia
The Sheltering Sky is a 1949 novel
by Paul Bowles
. The story centers on Port and Kit Moresby, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the North African desert accompanied by their friend Tunner. The journey, initially an attempt by Port and Kit to resolve their marital difficulties, is quickly fraught by the travelers' ignorance of the dangers that surround them.
Time
magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
was adapted by Bernardo Bertolucci
into a 1990 film by the same name starring Debra Winger
and John Malkovich
, with screenplay by Mark Peploe. In Bertolucci's interpretation, the bleak, sinister tone of the latter part of the book becomes a desert love story. The movie is filmed in Morocco, Algeria, and Niger and features powerful visual scenery.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Paul Bowles
Paul Bowles
Paul Frederic Bowles was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator.Following a cultured middle-class upbringing in New York City, during which he displayed a talent for music and writing, Bowles pursued his education at the University of Virginia before making various trips to Paris...
. The story centers on Port and Kit Moresby, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the North African desert accompanied by their friend Tunner. The journey, initially an attempt by Port and Kit to resolve their marital difficulties, is quickly fraught by the travelers' ignorance of the dangers that surround them.
Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The Sheltering SkyThe Sheltering Sky (film)
The Sheltering Sky is a 1990 British-Italian drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci starring Debra Winger and John Malkovich. The film is based on the 1949 novel by Paul Bowles about a couple who journey to northern Africa in the hopes of rekindling their marriage but soon fall prey to the...
was adapted by Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci is an Italian film director and screenwriter, whose films include The Conformist, Last Tango in Paris, 1900, The Last Emperor and The Dreamers...
into a 1990 film by the same name starring Debra Winger
Debra Winger
Mary Debra Winger is an American actress. Three-times an Oscar nominee, she received awards for acting in Terms of Endearment, for which she won the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress in 1983, and in A Dangerous Woman, for which she won the Tokyo International Film Festival...
and John Malkovich
John Malkovich
John Gavin Malkovich is an American actor, producer, director and fashion designer with his label Technobohemian. Over the last 25 years of his career, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures. For his roles in Places in the Heart and In the Line of Fire, he received Academy Award...
, with screenplay by Mark Peploe. In Bertolucci's interpretation, the bleak, sinister tone of the latter part of the book becomes a desert love story. The movie is filmed in Morocco, Algeria, and Niger and features powerful visual scenery.
Musical references
- The 1981 album Discipline by King CrimsonKing CrimsonKing Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
includes an eight-minute instrumental composition titled "The Sheltering Sky." - The 1983 album Synchronicity by the PoliceThe PoliceThe Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For the vast majority of their history, the band consisted of Sting , Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland...
includes a song called "Tea in the Sahara", the lyrics of which contain the phrase "beneath the sheltering sky" and are based on the tragic story of the three dancers who wish to have tea in the desert, but end up dead from the heat, with their cups filled only with sand. The story is told to the character Port in Chapter 5. - The 1992 album Beyond the Sky by Omar Faruk TekbilekOmar Faruk TekbilekÖmer Faruk Tekbilek , also known as Omar Faruk Tekbilek, is a Turkish flautist. He is known for his performances with the ney in a Sufi style...
was inspired by the film version of The Sheltering Sky. - The first song on NeurosisNeurosis (band)Neurosis is a post-metal band, based in Oakland, California. They formed in 1985 as a hardcore punk band, and their sound progressed towards a doom metal style that also included influences from dark ambient and industrial music as well as incorporating elements of folk music...
's album Enemy of the SunEnemy of the SunEnemy of the Sun is the fourth studio album from the Oakland, California band Neurosis. It was originally released on Alternative Tentacles in 1993 and later reissued on Neurot Recordings in 1999....
opens with a sample from the film. Also their album The Eye of Every Storm has a tracks entitled "Shelter" and " A Season in the Sky". - The God MachineThe God Machine (band)The God Machine was an alternative rock band, active in the first half of the 1990s. Its members were all from San Diego, California, United States, but they all lived and performed mainly in the United Kingdom and across Europe....
's first album Scenes from the Second StoreyScenes from the Second StoreyScenes from the Second Storey is the debut album by The God Machine released in 1993 by Fiction Records / Polydor. It peaked at #55 in the UK Album Chart....
opens with a similar sample. - The 1995 album ThrakTHRAKTHRAK is an album by the band King Crimson released in 1995, the successor to the preceding mini-album Vrooom . This album was recorded in the "double trio" format of King Crimson.-Track listing:...
by King CrimsonKing CrimsonKing Crimson are a rock band founded in London, England in 1969. Often categorised as a foundational progressive rock group, the band have incorporated diverse influences and instrumentation during their history...
includes the song "Walking on Air" which features these lyrics: "I'll be standing by your side in between the deep blue sea and the sheltering sky."
Popular culture
- In an interview just prior to his death, actor Brandon LeeBrandon LeeBrandon Bruce Lee was an American actor and martial artist. He was the son of martial arts film star Bruce Lee...
quoted a passage from The Sheltering Sky, which he had chosen for his wedding invitations; it is now inscribed on his tombstone.
- In the cult TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
, Crow T. RobotCrow T. RobotCrow T. Robot is a fictional character from the American science fiction comedy television series Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Crow is a robot, who, along with others, quips and riffs upon poor-quality B movies.- Overview :...
says of the slow-paced movie "WerewolfWerewolfA werewolf, also known as a lycanthrope , is a mythological or folkloric human with the ability to shapeshift into a wolf or an anthropomorphic wolf-like creature, either purposely or after being placed under a curse...
": "C'mon, 'The Sheltering Sky' moved faster than this movie!"
- In the 1980 Nicolas Roeg film Bad Timing Milena Flaherty is found reading the novel. The film and the novel are similar in many ways.