BESIEGED

BESIEGED (1999) **1/2

Reviewed 6/9/99

Bernardo Bertolucci makes his best film since The Last Emperor with Besieged, but that's not saying much when you consider the competition is The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha, and Stealing Beauty. Besieged is a chamber work for Bertolucci, especially compared to the vast canvasses that were 1900 and The Last Emperor. His cinematographer here, Fabio Cianchetti, works with an intimate palette of oranges and blue-greens and the focus rests almost wholly on two characters.

In an unidentified African country, Shandurai (Thandie Newton) watches her school teacher husband's arrest in horror. Next thing we know, she is a medical student in Rome and a maid for pianist Mr. Kinsky (David Thewlis). Living downstairs from him in a house he inherited from his aunt, Shandurai gets overtures of his attraction for her in the dumbwaiter she uses for storage. Mr. Kinsky is a loner, playing the piano all day long. The only visitors he gets are from the children who are his students. With underdeveloped social skills, Kinsky one day awkwardly professes his love to the shocked Shandurai, who rejects his proposal of marriage. Asked what he must do to make her love him, she responds by telling him to free her husband from prison. He apologizes to her saying he did not know she was married. Soon after, Shandurai begins noticing objects in the house disappearing.

For much of the film, Bertolucci does a remarkable job of telling the story sans dialogue. Kinsky and Shandurai observe each other in far-away glances as they go about their everyday activities. Despite the minimalism of the content, Bertolucci incorporates a lot more overt flash into his film style than usual with jump cuts, intense closeups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. When I say minimalism of content, perhaps I should say minimalism of action, for Bertolucci does put a great deal of symbolism in each scene. In one, Shandurai approaches Kinsky with news of her husband. Kinsky is watching a car race on television and the bee-like droning sound the cars make as they zip around the track realizes an underlying tension between this man and woman. Furthermore, the race reflects the unspoken competition between Kinsky and Shandurai's husband for her love.

Where Besieged goes wrong is the lack of emphasis on Thewlis' character. Bertolucci leaves it open enough that we wonder whether Kinsky is a saint or a passive aggressive freak. Bertolucci probably intends the former, but running with the latter approach would have been more interesting. As is, it's hard to believe Kinsky's motivation for his selflessness. What this does is make the whole thing seem like a liberal fantasy of the First World white male saving the Third World African woman.

Another fault in the film is that amid Besieged's mostly low key tone, occasional blasts of over-the-top melodrama erupt that seem out of place and unconvincing. A dream sequence in which Shandurai runs through her African village tearing down posters of the military dictator feels forced, as does a ridiculous masturbation scene with Shandurai licking her fingers.

The actors do a fine job. Thandie Newton shows she can do more than the overacting in Beloved (though that was probably not her fault), and Thewlis, who has already proven himself a great thespian in films like Naked, exceeds the limitations of his role, even if we are left wishing we knew more about him.