Product Details

• Actors: Matthew Barry, Jill Clayburgh
• Directors: Bernardo Bertolucci
• Format: NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: Portuguese
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: X (Mature Audiences Only)
• Studio: Versatil
• Run Time: 142 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000EWNEJ8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #60,114 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Audio - English 2.0 Dolby Digital; Video Format - Widescreen Anamorfic 1.66:1 Color; Uncut Version ... Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial drama explores the troubled life of a young man and his troubling relationship with his parents. Joe (Matthew Barry) is the son of famous opera singer Caterina Silveri (Jill Clayburgh); while Joe believes that Caterina's husband Douglas Winter (Fred Gwynne) is his biological father, the truth is that he was sired by Caterina's former lover, who is now living in Italy and working as a schoolteacher. Joe is moody and rebellious and needs a strong father figure to guide him and keep him in line. But Douglas is ineffectual and emotionally weak, and when Joe witnesses Douglas committing suicide, it sends the young man over the edge. In hopes of boosting her singing career, which has fallen into a rut, Caterina decides to move to Italy, with Joe in tow; Joe falls in with a dangerous crowd and becomes addicted to heroin, while Caterina, hoping to lure her son back to a safer and more healthy lifestyle, tries to become closer to him, which leads to a flirtation with incest. Jill Clayburgh's performance earned her a 1980 Golden Globe nomination.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like wine, it gets better and better as times goes by, August 7, 2006

By 

Julio Lopez "soundtrack fan" (Santiago, Chile) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Luna (DVD)

I saw this movie for the first time in Chicago, in the winter of 1980. It impressed me a lot, and its images lingered on my mind for a long time. I saw it again 12 years later and still found it a good movie, despite its violent sexual issues. I've revisited it once again a few days ago in a wonderful DVD version and I was deeply impressed. This is one of those movies similar to wine: as time goes by, it gets older...and better. No doubt about it, it's quite crude and may shock a large number of viewers. The incest theme can only be compared to the treatment that Louis Malle had previously given to the subject in "Le Soufle Au Coeur" in 1971 (again, the relation between a mother and her teenager son). However, two aspects make me prefer this film rather than the excellent Malle movie: Jill Clayburg'interpretation and the wonderful operatic background that Bertolucci gave to his drama. Besides- and this is no novelty coming from Bertolucci - it's such a beautiful movie form the visual viewpoint: wonderfully shot, edited and with a fascinanting tempo that allows you to enjoy every second of it. If you haven't seen this movie, don't hesitate in getting it: you might get disturbed, it will probably shock you, but be sure that you'll see cinematographic images as you've never seen before.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Get with it, Region 1!, June 20, 2008

By 

Thomas Caron (Shanghai) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: La Luna (DVD)

This is a movie that's been on the top of my "Most Wanted" list for years. Finally found it on a French made DVD here in Shanghai, at a supermarket of all places. Bernardo Bertolucci's 1979 follow-up to "Last Tango in Paris" and "Novocento" stars Jill Clayburgh as an opera diva who has a semi-incestuous relationship with her teenage junkie son after she develops a psychosomatic impasse that prevents her from singing. Talk about loaded. Bertolucci's trademark brew of sex and politics is as full-on as ever, but the real subject of the movie is how do you get your chops back once you've lost your way as an artist.

4.0 out of 5 stars Potent drama, indeed!, September 27, 2011

By 

Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: La Luna (DVD)

Bernardo Bertolucci after having shaken the world with his Last Tango in Paris, presents us with a raw emotional and affective picture involves a weak son confronted with the highly successful nature mother, a renowned opera singer, happily married until a tragedy occurs. A heart attack ended the life of her husband. From the desolate state of solitude, both are enclosed within their emotional shells. But the son seeks refuge in drugs and not to lose it, has made a determination. But there is still a secret from the past to unravel.

Bertolucci unleashes his feverish love of Opera Itaiana and complete this existential framework with some pieces magnificently assembled into this terrible and distressing dramatis personae.

Jill Claybough (April 30, 1944 - November 5, 2010) was always one of my favorite actresses in her generation. Her role is fascinating, compelling and nuanced with complete spontaneity.

An original masterwork.