Carlos Canales Everyone that has (or has had) a mother of considerable beauty, with a strong presence in their lives and/or where a father figure is flawed one and/or doesn't exist at all, can immediately understand and relate to this spectacular drama. From the very first minutes we can witness the connection between mother and son, a bond so strong that goes beyond words. This movie has been badly reviewed and analyzed until this day. I will humbly try to correct some points made by others. The young kid in the movie begins his descent into drugs not because he misses her dad, but because he wants to numb himself and escape the sexual lust and feelings he has towards her mom. You can watch it very clearly in the scene between them when he couldn't inject heroin in his arm due to a lack of a needle and it's all covered in fever. He then proceeds to guide her mom's hand to his groin. It's clear then the real motive why he was in that condition. Another point most people don't seem to recognize is that the mother doesn't recur to the incest to get close to his son. She does so because she shared the same sexual desire towards him. She had witness an incestuous relationship between his boyfriend and his mother and accepted it because deep inside she knew she had it (those impulses) in her too.This movie's themes and subject matter are taboo to this day, but I for once I'm grateful that those kind of themes are covered at all in an elegant, profound and non-graphic film such as this one. This is not a soft porn flick nor it is made for titillating audiences. The photography, the music and Jill Clayburg's performance are like the icing on a cake. This is one of those rare movies that's so rich in content that it deserves repeated viewing in order to fully understand all it's values and details.

m-sendey An opera singer Caterina Silveri (Jill Clayburgh) sets off for Italy, the moment her husband gets killed in a car accident. She is accompanied by her young, handsome son Joe (Matthew Barry) who soon grows in the habit of taking drugs. The mother begins an incestuous relationship with her lonely son so that he could overcome his addiction… This motion picture from Bernardo Bertolucci is a flabbergastingly inconsistent opus which does not shock anymore and whose composition resembles a mashed frog smeared on one's wall. The film is generally flawed owing to being lamely scripted and having the horrendous dialogues which prejudice the material even more. By re-conceiving the concept from Before the Revolution from 1964, Mr Bertolucci perchance intends to exhibit the putridity of haute bourgeoisie as well as a complicated relationship between the mother and her infant, but he fails to convey anything but cheap gestures, scenes swaying between solemnity and instants of quasi-hysterical exultations reminiscent of a bottom-drawer vaudeville, performers who turn up for no reason whatsoever, a great deal of pointless moments which do not add anything to the already muddled plot. Bertolucci seems to be smug to disclose some bond between opera and cinema, yet, to my way of thinking, the upshot is downright pathetic and deprived of essential ingredients such as likable leading figures. Instead, a viewer is constrained to sit through over two hours with two crass hedonists endeavouring to find happiness in their narcissistic lives. The flick welters in its excesses and it is only palatable once the opera sequences come in sight, unfortunately these are few and far between. The characters in la bête noire by Bertolucci are provided with no depth and constitute just furnishings in this beauteously framed film, shot by the great Vittorio Storaro. The personalities of the main heroes i.e. the opera singer and her son are contrived, unreal, but most of all, there is no chemistry in the realm of their interactions and all the protagonists do is quarrelling and making up. This repetitiveness will prove quite an ordeal for some. Ultimately, we are stranded in this vortex of soap opera seasoned with munificent portions of soap, paltry discourses, ubiquitous aimlessness and directional complacency. Towards the denouement, the opus embarks on being slightly better on account of Tomas Milian's agile performance, but it is too late to revive the already embalmed content.Jill Clayburgh is not too bad as Caterina Silveri, although her appearance in this movie does not render the things any better. Matthew Barry is the one who feels rather inexperienced in his role and as a consequence, he pronounces his lines virtually phonetically. Tomas Milian is the best member of the cast and his subtle performing infuses some realism into the frenetic work. There are some other dexterous actors e.g. Franco Citti, Alida Valli, Renato Salvatori and Roberto Benigni who almost seems to be perpetuated on the celluloid by accident, his part is very, very insignificant and unnecessary.The cinematography by Storaro is ravishingly enthralling, as always. Storaro captures the beauty of landscapes like a painter, considerately constructing the image in detail, one element after another. Notwithstanding, if you are exasperated by the dissipated narrative texture, asinine conversations, the insipid, vagabond script and you don't find the film any better than I do, you might be insufficiently attentive to his décor. The soundtrack by Ennio Morricone is not memorable at all, but it certainly unnerves and prompts some sort of foreboding.I am certain that there are people who appreciate this flick, but, as far as I am concerned, this blague does not appeal to me forasmuch as it implicates unlikable, one-dimensional characters, loads of senseless sequences, needlessly prolonged running time, contrived dialogues and the enragingly pervasive ambivalence. How to express it all in a couple of lines? At one point in the movie, Joe Silveri prepares supper for himself and his mum. Once he tastes the meal he has just cooked, he winces and utters: "God, it's awful, it sucks". This epitomises La luna for me. It genuinely sucks.

preppy-3 Opera singer Caterina Silveri's (Jill Clayburgh) husband dies in a car accident. She moves to Italy with her 15 year old son Joe (played by 17 year old Matthew Barry) to revive her career. She, not on purpose, begins to neglect Joe and he starts shooting up heroin. She finds out and doesn't know what to do. She ends up sleeping with him to get him off drugs! There's a LOT more to it than that but I wouldn't want to ruin it for anyone.First off--the incest. It's hardly in the movie at all. It's not even the main plot--it's a sub plot! There are only two scenes and neither of them contain nudity or are explicit. Also Clayburgh and Barry don't even remotely resemble each other so it isn't that disturbing. The real plot deals with Joe feeling out of place and not knowing why and his mother dealing with her husband's death, starting her career AND her teenage son's addiction. The two actors work wonderfully together and make their mother/son relationship look realistic. The most shocking moment here is when they physically attack each other. The fight is obviously staged (you see Barry purposely missing Calyburgh when he tries to punch her) but the acting is good and the dialogue harsh. It's beautifully directed by Bertolucci with incredible settings and a stunning performance by Clayburgh. Still it's not a great movie. It goes on far too long (it's 150 minutes), Barry's obnoxious behavior got on my nerves quickly and it gets dull. Still it is beautifully done and worth watching for Clayburgh and Bertolucci's direction.A bomb when it came out (because they kept pushing the incest plot) but worthy of some respect.

andrabem "La Luna is a wonderful film - Caterina (Jill Clayburgh) goes with her son Joe (Matthew Berry) to Italy after the death of her husband/Joe's "father". In Italy they stand by themselves and Joe, a lonely boy, is still grieving his "father"'s death. This is not apparent because Joe looks like a normal teenager. Parties, girlfriend and so on. One day during Joe's birthday party, Caterina discovers that her son is on heroine. She doesn't know what to do. She gets to know that Joe, her son, feels very lonely and she tries to deepen their relationship. It is not easy. Joe is sensitive and very intelligent. It wouldn't do to just pat his head, tell him to stop with the nonsense and be a good boy - there's no use for the repressive approach. And their relationship gets very close - psychologically and sexually speaking. It's amazing. A special love relationship will grow between mother and son. I don't believe that a film like "La Luna" could be made in the USA. The USA are too puritan for this kind of thing.There's a beautiful interview of Bertolucci featured in the bonus in which he comments on how his own remembrances influenced the film - he was a baby and his mother was cycling on the road one night. She was young and beautiful and he remembers seeing her face and then the moon in a way that both seemed to blend together for some moments. The bonus shows us Bertolucci being interviewed in different phases of his life. He is very intelligent and human and has really something to say."La Luna" is a very beautiful film that can touch a delicate subject with tenderness and poetry. Jill Clayburgh and Matthew Barry are outstanding as mother and son and I must confess that during the film I wished Jill Clayburgh were my mother. Oh Yes! I didn't like the ending so much, but I think that maybe Bertolucci wanted an operatic ending to "La Luna", it is a matter of taste, anyway.