Search - Stealing Beauty on DVD

Stealing Beauty

Actor(s): Liv Tyler, Sin�ad Cusack, Donal McCann, Jeremy Irons, Jean Marais
Director(s): Bernardo Bertolucci
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Movie Details

MPAA Rating: R
Content Advisory: Brief Nudity, Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Adult Humor, Sexual Situations
Movie Release: 1996
DVD Release: 01/08/2002
Format: DVD - Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
Edition: Dual Layered
Audio Tracks: English
Subtitles: English, Spanish
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Number of Discs: 1
Run Time: 1 hrs 59 mins
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Total Copies: 4
Genres: Drama, Romance, Romantic Drama, Coming-of-Age

DVD Synopsis

This beautiful if ponderous souffl� of a film from director Bernardo Bertolucci serves more as an Italian travelogue than a drama. Liv Tyler stars as Lucy Harmon, an American teenager arriving in the lush Tuscan countryside to visit family friends residing there. Lucy visited four years earlier and exchanged a kiss with a handsome boy with whom she hopes to become reacquainted. Lucy's mother has committed suicide since then, and the teenager also hopes to discover the identity of her father, whom her mother hinted was a resident of the villa. Once she arrives, Lucy meets a variety of eccentric visitors, including a dying gay playwright (Jeremy Irons), a sculptor (Donal McCann), an entertainment lawyer (D.W. Moffet), and several others. 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. Stealing Beauty boasted an intriguing parallel between actress Tyler's role and her real life. The daughter of a famed rock and roll star, she was brought up believing that her father was someone else, a fact that Bertolucci may have had in mind when writing the story. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Actors

Liv Tyler - Lucy Harmon
Sin�ad Cusack - Diana Grayson
Donal McCann - Ian Grayson
Jeremy Irons - Alex Parrish
Jean Marais - M. Guillaume

Editorial Review of DVD

Bernardo Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty comes to DVD with a widescreen anamorphic transfer that preserves the original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The disc does a beautiful job of displaying the sumptuous cinematography. Closed-captioned English soundtracks are rendered in Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital Surround, while a French soundtrack has been recorded in Dolby Digital Stereo. English and Spanish subtitles are accessible. Supplemental materials include a making-of featurette, television promotional materials, and a theatrical trailer. This is a solid disc from 20th Century Fox that should please fans of the film and spark some interest from fans of Liv Tyler. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Member Movie Reviews

Frank E. (realartist) from HENDERSONVLLE, NC wrote on 8/31/2009...

This movie may be getting 3 stars since it IS an unusual, and slightly disturbing story. A young girl returns to the art colony in a gorgeous section of Italy to an art colony where her mother once stayed, and where she also had visited when younger. Now she is 19, and never been with a man; and is hoping for a nice summer romance to end her virginity.
In most movies, there is usually a 'bad guy' or dark force at work for our hero, or heroine to overcome. But in this movie, the dark force is the artist colony with a lot of young people around living the 'free love without commitment' lifestyle. A number of men are competing to be the one to take Lucy's virginity. Almost all of them are just womanizers, with no morals or scruples at all.
As a theologian, I can assure you that a group of 'church folk' would all walk out in an indignant huff. But this is the unflattering aspect of church folk, inasmuch as there seems to be an attempt to "establish that WE are ABOVE sin"...when the simple fact is, all church folk have been like the people in this movie at one time in their life; are NOW sinners, and never will be above sin...never! So that would just be a big show and pretense of 'piety'..which makes everyone hate Christians. The honest thing to do is realize stuff that happens in this movie happens all day every day. Often young girls are thrown into these situations totally naive...not the brightest bulbs in the pack, so to speak.
So that gives you the 'tension' that underscores the movie..our worry about this poor naive young woman concerns us deeply.
Some of you guys out there might wince when your wife suggests a romance movie. That's unfortunate...for most romance stories have some pretty steamy sex scenes. This one has them all over the place..lots of bare breasts, and lots of ( cough ) fornicating. A bit shocking - so this worries us immensely. Many of these guys are not gentlemen at all.

What happens? Well, you'll just have to find out for yourself. I can tell you that this script is good...there are many scenes where the people are speaking in their native tongues...French, Italian, German...and no subtitles for it...so you feel as lost as Lucy does at times. This directorial technique is intended. There are many subtleties, and levels on which this story spins and diverts, taking aesthetic detours, arrives at dead ends, and takes you "by Robin Hood's Barn", so to speak...like real life. This directorial technique causes Lucy to be something like a rat in a maze.

It is a lovely story. Just relax and enjoy turning the pages. You won't perish in flames. After all..you've been through this yourselves, and came out alive, didn't you?
Although, if honest ~ you wonder how!