Stealing Beauty, a film review

Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci based on a novel by Susan Minot.

This delicate and intimate drama orbits around the coming of age story. Shortly after her mother's suicide, 19 year old virgin Lucy (Liv Tyler) arrives in Italy to visit her belated mother’s friends in hopes of loosing her virginity and discovering the secret identity of her father. An artist (Donal McCann), his wife (Sinead Cusack), and their friend Alex (Jeremy Irons) help Lucy trace her roots and look for suitable candidates to aid her in her quest, while feeding on her innocence and candid beauty.

Like her belated poet mother, Lucy attempts to write her own poetry, but fails to tie two words together.  Her typical rhymes are littered with childlike references such as ``quiet as a cup'' and playful requests to ``rattle me'' , ``drink from me”, “wake me up.”  Knowing that her poems are no good, Lucy burns them.  

Filled with childlike innocence but devoid of moral fiber, Lucy is a striking muse, who serves as a sort of medium for the occupants of the Tuscan villa, where the plot unfolds.

The film develops slowly, like a great lustrous Italian vacation, leisurely flowing over beautiful landscapes mixed and youthful body parts of Liv Tyler. 

The Italian setting and the slow pace of the film are remarkable as signs of self-indulgence juxtaposed against the self-centered discontent of its main characters. The purpose of Lucy’s character is to shake things up by injecting beauty and purity into nascent decadence of lives deprived of meaning.

Liv Tyler is a perfect mixture of innocence and sensual perfection, who glues the film together with nothing other than her model looks and youthful appearance.  The camera work and the direction of characters focus on Lucy as a momentary source of inspiration and amusement.  From the opening shots, to the ending credits, the film is one of voyeurism and exploration of a relationship between an artist and his subject.  Beautiful in her virginal state, Lucy’s is an ephemeral muse, to be used and discarded after the artist finishes his new work. 


Not surprisingly, the film ends upon Lucy’s loss of her virginity. Fortunately, she chooses an appropriate character for this task.

The real beauty of the film is not in Tyler, however.  Rather, it is in the slow pace of the film and the skilled camera work.  Without really going anywhere, Bertolucci makes love to the Italian countryside with images that create a heightened sense of artistic intoxication.  Taking his audience on a captivating journey of profligacy and pleasure, the director shares a purely hedonistic experience with art film connoisseurs.