Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful Movie - but ....
Review: I needed more of an ending! Thandie is always great to watch, and I really enjoyed her portrayal of an African asylum seeker, living in Italy. The movie was romantic in a very understated way. BRAVO!
Rating:
Summary: Master director outdoes previous marvels.
Review: I purchased "Besieged" upon strong recommendations of trustworthy friends and my own appreciation of "Stealing Beauty" and "Sheltering Sky". I came to like that relatievly short (93 min.) movie with only two major characters more than the director's past films.
Bertolucci tells an extraordinary story with a compact outline with great skill and makes it believable. He was able to throw in great camera angles and little cinematographic inventions for a totally fresh feeling. That film is most probably among the best of the best representatives of the art of cinema. Great directing, photography, acting and music. A jewel.
Absence of a 5.1 ch. soundtrack is not felt at all, yet this film could benefit from stereo PCM sound since it is loaded with piano playing.
Rating:
Summary: Master director outdoes previous marvels.
Review: I purchased "Besieged" upon strong recommendations of trustworthy friends and my own appreciation of "Stealing Beauty" and "Sheltering Sky". I came to like that relatievly short (93 min.) movie with only two major characters more than the director's past films.
Bertolucci tells an extraordinary story with a compact outline with great skill and makes it believable. He was able to throw in great camera angles and little cinematographic inventions for a totally fresh feeling. That film is most probably among the best of the best representatives of the art of cinema. Great directing, photography, acting and music. A jewel.
Absence of a 5.1 ch. soundtrack is not felt at all, yet this film could benefit from stereo PCM sound since it is loaded with piano playing.
Rating:
Summary: a perfect movie
Review: IMPORTANT!! Neither AMAZON nor the DVD box tellS you that there is a second COMMENTARY featuring the writer then more with the director and his wife. Both TRACKS 2 and TRACKS 3 are compelling. Howard in Manchester UK
Rating:
Summary: The Sweet Texture of Papaya
Review: It is remarkable what this excellent film shares with another in which a combination of piano, suds on the floor, and, yes, papaya, set the context for a nuanced, meticulously developed study of self-discovery, liberation, and developing love: namely, Scent of the Green Papaya (Tran Anh Hung). Ebert's description of the latter ("a poem for the eyes") is equally applicable to this wonderful piece which will surely place among Bertolucci's bests. Perhaps even more noteworthy (given the similarly striking results), is Bertolucci saying in the voice-over (alternate audio track, DVD edition) that real sets are essential (the aged villa overlooking the Spanish Steps), as opposed to Tran Anh Hung's set-recreated, yet equally effective, sun-drenched Saigon. For both films, the paucity of dialogue provides the space for visual and emotional energy to flow unhindered from screen to viewer.
Rating:
Summary: a lyric tale of two exiles
Review: Music is the center of Thewlis' world and it is the center of the movie. You'll appreciate your sound system during this film because it is made up of music rather than dialogue or stunning visuals. Although Thandie Newton is certainly a stunning visual.This movie stands out because it is so absolutely like no other, not even Bertolucci's previous efforts prepare you for it. Thewlis(you might remember from Naked)plays the decadent westerner(all Bertolucci lead roles are that)we are asked to pay attention to. Thewlis does not demand you pay attention like Brando does rather he is so quiet and mysterious you can't help but pay attention. Only when he plays piano do you find out how much is going on within him. And what music(the piano is the third major presence in this movie). Thewliss and Newton come from different sides of the world and neither is perhaps very satisfied with the place from whence they come, both exiles, and each is very curious about the other. Many times the camera is on one at a time while each wonders about the other in the next room. It doesn't sound like much but it is drama of a very peculiar sort. Two humans,two cultures perhaps, slowly coming into contact. Very strange and very powerful movie. You may as well order the soundtrack too.
Rating:
Summary: Simply put, this is an excellent movie.
Review: Perhaps Bertolucci's best effort to date. The film succeeds in character development with fascinating dialogue. The acting is first rate and the story is wonderful. In addition to the excellent cinematography Alessio Vlad has provided a terrific musical composition performed by Stefano Arnaldi that seem perfectly well suited for the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Great Thandie/Thewlis Thiege
Review: The best movie I saw that year. A tender story acted with restraint and gloriously shot. I was a fan of the two leads before I saw this, but now I'm truly smitten. . . . a blow to my curmudgeonhood!
Rating: 
Summary: Refreshing movie.....weak ending
Review: The cinematography was beautiful and Thandie Newton was marvelous as always, but I hated the way the story droaned for too long on how Thewlis and Newton's relationship was built and didn't bother to focus enough on Newton's character's troubles. I felt cheated by the cliffhanger ending.
Rating:
Summary: A truly intelligent love story
Review: The title of Bertolucci's Besieged is a subtle reference to both main characters--Thandie Newton's Shandurai and David Thewlis' Mr. Kinsky. The former, an African emigre now living in Rome, is both a medical student and Mr. Kinsky's housekeeper. Her state of "besiegement" is the situation of living in Kinsky's confining environment--confining principally because of the owner's emotional isolation, and simultaneously of her husband having been arrested in her native country; she is besieged by exposure to a foreign culture, by forces previously unknown to her. Kinsky's besiegement is, as mentioned above, his emotional isolation. He keeps himself inside his house and is rarely seen venturing outside. Only after he professes his passion for his housekeeper and realizes that he must do more than verbalize his feelings does he break the confines of his physical surroundings and leave the barriers he has besieged himself with. Kinsky, a composer and pianist, is initially seen playing standard Western classical music, but as he becomes more enamored with Shandurai, the rhythms of her African music begin to influence his own compositions. In a beautiful scene, a session at his piano begins with a simple two-note structure and ultimately results in a piece that fervently echoes the hypnotic, percussive feel of the songs she listens to on her cassette player in her downstairs apartment. Kinsky's intensity throughout, paralleled with Shandurai's combined intelligence and semi-bewilderment are what gives this work its resonance. This is a truly memorable film, one worth seeing repeatedly.
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