Customer center

We are a boutique essay service, not a mass production custom writing factory. Let us create a perfect paper for you today!

Example research essay topic: Foreign Film Review Stealing Beauty - 1,643 words

NOTE: Free essay sample provided on this page should be used for references or sample purposes only. The sample essay is available to anyone, so any direct quoting without mentioning the source will be considered plagiarism by schools, colleges and universities that use plagiarism detection software. To get a completely brand-new, plagiarism-free essay, please use our essay writing service.
One click instant price quote

Foreign Film Review: Stealing Beauty In 1996 a talented Bernardo Bertolucci wrote and directed a very controversial, but beautiful in itself film Stealing Beauty. Although Bertolucci had not made an Italian movie for more than fifteen years, he obviously did not lose his special interest in humans inner state and personality. However, in this particular time his concern was also marked with certain intimate nuance. Moreover, through such nuances he intended to disclose the relationships between young people and his own generation of sexually adventurous, drug-taking aesthetes. (Kerry Fall) The main peculiarity of the movie is that although there are not so many characters in it, one does not feel any shortage of participants in the story.

Bertolucci skillfully introduced them one by one, creating in such way a good combination of time and space. The main heroine of this movie is Lucy Harman (Liv Tyler). The first acquaintance with her is the promising one for the viewer. She has very pensive face expression, and the viewer expects some intellectual content in the further events.

Indeed, at this moment nineteen years old Lucy is thinking about a riddle her mother left in the diary. Lucy experienced a suicide of her mother, who was a poet and, as we can assume, had some interesting times in her life. Young Lucy Harman travels to Italy to stay with some closer friends of her mother. Basically, she has several purposes for being there. Viewers can only guess what is Lucy's most important reason for being there.

At first, we discover that she wants to renew her relationships with a handsome young boy from a neighboring family named Nicolo Donate. Four years ago he became the first man she kissed. They have been sending letters to each other for a certain period of time, but this stopped later on, however. Despite of that, Lucy still cherished the memory of Nicolo for a long time. Later, the viewer discovers that Lucy has a very specific plan concerning Nicolo, and this plan surely does not limit itself with renewing of their relationships.

The girl wants to lose her virginity to his boy. In addition, she needs her portrait to be finished. Another reason for her to come to Italy is Lucy's desire to find the answer to the secret of her mothers diary she wants to know the identity of her biological father. I wait and wait so patiently.

I'm quiet as a cup... I hope you " ll come and rattle me... Quick! Come and wake me up!' (Film quote) This is an example of some poems written by Lucy and it can characterize the main heroine completely. Lucy Harman is a very controversial and unstable character, who, however, plays a significant role in the movie.

On one hand, Lucy is a girl with no idea in her head, has no conversation, interests and wit. On the other hand, she carries a significant mission concerning the surrounding people and atmosphere. A small world isolated from the entire life, a hilltop Tuscan villa is populated by artists and intellectuals. However, all of them in a general perspective seem to be more than bizarre. Spectators do not have an idea of who they are some of them are English, some American, some Italian, but all live in the big villa. They all are very different, starting with gruff, hard-working painter and sculptor Ian Grayson (Donal McCann), columnist (Stefania Sandrelli), and finishing with a middle-aged writer who is dying of an undisclosed disease.

Most of the middle-aged characters in Stealing Beauty are bored, indolent, and a bit adrift, and even the most artistically engaged of them, McCann's painter-sculptor, is in need of the fresh source of inspiration Lucy provides. Moving with grace and sensuality, Lucy arouses the curiosity of the guests, awakening dormant desires and attentions in the circle of drowsy intellectuals who allow themselves to live without emotions morbidly interested only in the adolescent girl's virginity. Virtually all of the adults are still going through the motions they began roughly 30 years before -- tired seductions, dope smoking, and fashioning uncertain creations. In this particular case, the main purpose of Lucy is to reveal for these exiles what their lives like and what they should be.

She also succeeded in destroying of that decadence, which exists at the villa. A film finished with the fulfillment of what was to be done. Lucy Harman found her biological father and got rid of her virginity. And again, creators of the story do not disclose the inner world of Lucy. After all, it becomes obvious that Lucy serves for Bertolucci more as a plot device than as a person. Another interesting point of this story and movie itself lies in how people with different backgrounds or from different cultures can perceive it.

The fact that there are many characters from different cultures as well as various ages makes the movie to be understandable for all. However, there is one thing that gives this movie another different form. It is the presence of certain nakedness. The audience observes everything connected with Lucy.

She is listening to her stereo, gazes out of the window, smiles, and visits the toilet. This attention to such the details, which did not tell anything to us, makes movie to seem empty, but erotic. All the spectators from all the cultures perceive a guilty pleasure to see something that should remains unrevealed and in secret. However, while she is sleeping we are examining every line on her face, her hand lingering by her crotch, the drool running down one side of her cheek.

Even if in the movie there were no storyline connected with sex or naked positioning, it still remains erotic, because this is the main feature, which unites two major generations in the movie. Moreover, the author of the film who has been struck dumb by the beauty of a nubile young girl, and has made the mistake of trying to approach her on what he thinks is her level. The movie plays like the kind of line a rich older guy would lay on a teenage model, suppressing his own intelligence and irony in order to spread out before her the wonderful world he would like to give her as a gift. Look at these hills! These sunsets!

Smell the herbed air! See how the light catches the old rose-covered villa! There are some important things, which are very helpful in a better understanding of a film. One of the most important things in this case is a perception of Italy, its spirit and culture. Despite the fact that not all of the characters are Italian the contribution of the spirit of Italy to the story is significant. Director could not find a better place for the development of the plot than small isolated, almost fairy world.

This world is not fast changing and there are not so many events happening every day, however, this world is a perfect place to find oneself, to think about life, to look for inspiration and to create in silence and harmony. Even in such a perfect world it is difficult to obtain a complete harmony, and it requires some external treatment. In this specific case, it was Lucy's arrival. The importance of the place perception becomes even more important since the director of the picture paid much attention to it, otherwise he could easily make it in another country, especially when the plot really does not require the events to be exactly in Italy. Portraying the foreign, British-dominated community in Chiantishire provides Bertolucci with a sort of side-door port of reentry into Italy.

His perspective is a deliberately distanced one, essentially that of a foreigner who loves Italy for its beauty and culture. From the other point of view, Italy fits the requirements to the place in this film. In no other place we could find such a burning temperament and energy. However, there are things, which are more important in this case.

In Italy everything tends to be open, to be out of boundaries, which life puts upon it. That is why people try to live together with their families in Italy. Even in our particular case, people from different cultural backgrounds and occupations are living together under the same roof, sharing the same food and happiness. This is a true representation of Italian mark and influence. Everyone, including the neighboring family, is a relative of another. Like many other Brits-in-Italy movies it makes you want to find this place and go there.

However, it seems like if you get there this village will be empty. Frankly speaking, there is always a feeling of time in that movie, that everything described sooner or later will come to its end: pictures and sculptures will disappear, Lucy's obsession will fade away, and obviously a writer In conclusion, it is necessary to mention that Susan Minots screenplay for Stealing Beauty has some drawbacks. For instance, in several episodes there is a certain inconvenience for the viewers, such as in the case when Lucy discovers the identity of her biological father, the plot becomes sparse and the audience is left in confusion. Although Stealing Beauty has some problems, it is a compelling film.

It has a simple storyline that is able to work on many levels and explore many different themes. When asked what he was trying to achieve in Stealing Beauty, Bertolucci replied that he was attempting to accurately reflect, the strength and fragility of the passage of youth. (Ed Berkcamp) Bertolucci has achieved his aim in Stealing Beauty; through its vivid imagery and the insightful portrayal of its characters Stealing Beauty realistically explores the emotional journey from childhood to womanhood. Works Cited: Kerry Fall on Stealing Beauty, Movie Digest, Chicago, 1996 Ed Berkcamp on Stealing Beauty, Chicago Sun-Times Inc. , 1996


Free research essays on topics related to: stealing, biological father, middle aged, important things, lucy

Research essay sample on Foreign Film Review Stealing Beauty

Writing service prices per page

  • $18.85 - in 14 days
  • $19.95 - in 3 days
  • $23.95 - within 48 hours
  • $26.95 - within 24 hours
  • $29.95 - within 12 hours
  • $34.95 - within 6 hours
  • $39.95 - within 3 hours
  • Calculate total price

Our guarantee

  • 100% money back guarantee
  • plagiarism-free authentic works
  • completely confidential service
  • timely revisions until completely satisfied
  • 24/7 customer support
  • payments protected by PayPal

Secure payment

With EssayChief you get

  • Strict plagiarism detection regulations
  • 300+ words per page
  • Times New Roman font 12 pts, double-spaced
  • FREE abstract, outline, bibliography
  • Money back guarantee for missed deadline
  • Round-the-clock customer support
  • Complete anonymity of all our clients
  • Custom essays
  • Writing service

EssayChief can handle your

  • essays, term papers
  • book and movie reports
  • Power Point presentations
  • annotated bibliographies
  • theses, dissertations
  • exam preparations
  • editing and proofreading of your texts
  • academic ghostwriting of any kind

Free essay samples

Browse essays by topic:

Stay with EssayChief! We offer 10% discount to all our return customers. Once you place your order you will receive an email with the password. You can use this password for unlimited period and you can share it with your friends!

Academic ghostwriting

About us

© 2002-2024 EssayChief.com