Movie · 1990 · Drama, Adventure · 2h 18m · R · English
Curator score: 4.3/10 (25.4K ratings)
A woman's dangerous and erotic journey...
Overview
An American couple drift toward emptiness in postwar North Africa.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.3/10
IMDb: 6.7/10
Letterboxd: 3.50/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 45%
TMDB: 6.5/10
Director
Bernardo Bertolucci
Production
Recorded Picture Company, Aldrich Group, Film Trustees Ltd., TAO Film
Cast
Debra Winger, John Malkovich, Campbell Scott, Jill Bennett, Timothy Spall, Eric Vu-An, Amina Annabi, Philippe Morier-Genoud, Sotigui Kouyaté, Tom Novembre, Mohamed Ben Smail, Kamel Cherif, Mohammed Afifi, Brahim Oubana, Carolyn De Fonseca, Veronica Lazăr, Rabea Tami, Nicoletta Braschi, Menouer Samiri, Keltoum Alaoui
Curator Review
Verdict
A haunting, visually ravishing existential travel drama that trades plot momentum for mood, alienation, and psychological unraveling. It’s not an easy watch, but for viewers drawn to sensual filmmaking, desert imagery, and bleak self-discovery, it can be unforgettable.
Best for
Fans of slow-burn art cinema
Viewers interested in existential or spiritual drift
People who value cinematography and atmosphere over narrative drive
Audiences drawn to doomed relationships and psychological dislocation
Skip if
You want a clear, propulsive story
You dislike emotionally cold or unsympathetic characters
You prefer straightforward adventure films
You’re impatient with long stretches of mood and ambiguity
Overview
Bernardo Bertolucci turns a postwar desert journey into a study of emptiness, privilege, and self-delusion. What begins as a marriage-in-crisis road story gradually becomes something more disorienting and elemental, with the landscape swallowing the characters’ assumptions whole.
Worth noting
The film’s greatest strength is its atmosphere: sun-bleached, sensual, and quietly oppressive. It’s a movie of heat, distance, and emotional erosion, anchored by striking imagery and a sense that every attempt at self-discovery is already compromised.
Bottom line
It can feel remote, even frustrating, especially if you want the characters to be likable or the narrative to tighten up. But if you respond to films that linger like a fever dream, this is one of the more memorable examples of 1990s prestige art cinema.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Neil Bahadur (5★) · 141 likes
There's nothing particularly likeable about Port or Kit Morseby, nor really anyone in this movie, and Bertolucci starts his film with considerable emphasis on the "haute bourgeois-ness" of the couple, the pretentious 40s New York "artiste" of Malkovich's Port and his self-styled psuedo-Hemingway etiquette, and Winger's Kit, who privately espouts how much she hates philosophy to a colleague while her husband is away and more or less is just here because she's along for the ride until she has no… more There's nothing particularly likeable about Port or Kit Morseby, nor really anyone in this movie, and Bertolucci starts his film with considerable emphasis on the "haute bourgeois-ness" of the couple, the pretentious 40s New York "artiste" of Malkovich's Port and his self-styled psuedo-Hemingway etiquette, and Winger's Kit, who privately espouts how much she hates philosophy to a colleague while her husband is away and more or less is just here because she's along for the ride until she has no… more
Batuhan Taşçılar (3.5★) · 140 likes
2 analyzes in English and Turkish
English: The DVD of this magnificent film has been with me for years, and I’ve always wanted to watch it. This film kept me awake at night, lost in thought.
Before mentioning the plot:
The film is based on the novel of the same name by Paul Bowles, who also appears as the narrator. Released approximately forty-one years after the novel’s first publication in 1949, the film takes place in Morocco, where Bowles settled… more
hazal (0.5★) · 119 likes
kul euzü birabbin nas melikin nas ilahin nas everytime i close my eyes it's like a dark paradise
Jake Cole (4★) · 105 likes
To travel the world in the hopes of finding yourself is merely an attempt to outrun your shadow. The opening distinction between "tourists" and "travelers" is merely a delineation of how fully you're willing to commit to this delusion, and though the white people can speak the language(s), they have no understanding of the places they visit and even less ability to wring any great truths of self. The extent to which this film is read as either a continuation… more To travel the world in the hopes of finding yourself is merely an attempt to outrun your shadow. The opening distinction between "tourists" and "travelers" is merely a delineation of how fully you're willing to commit to this delusion, and though the white people can speak the language(s), they have no understanding of the places they visit and even less ability to wring any great truths of self. The extent to which this film is read as either a continuation… more
𝑵𝒖𝒓🦢 (0.5★) · 66 likes
ÖNUMDEKİ ENGEL KALKTIĞINA GÖRE HAKETTİĞİ PUANI VEREBİLİİRM