There is a theory that the fairy tale "Sleeping Beauty" was originally devised to teach young girls not to fear losing their virginity.
Director Bernardo Bertolucci must have been aware of this when he named his latest project, "Stealing Beauty." This is a film primarily concerned with how a young girl overcomes her fear of sex and loses her virginity.
Described like this, it all seems exceptionally crass, an impression the film's publicity ("The most beautiful place to be is in love") will do nothing to change.
Yet somehow if you manage to summount the sensation of rising nausea at the hype, you will find the film far more pleasant than it seems to promise.
Young and innocent, Lucy (Liv Tyler) travels to Italy and finds art and love amongst a group of bohemians. If this sounds familiar that is because it probably is: E.M. Forster's "A Room With A View," made into a successful film by production team Merchant-Ivory, has a strangely similar structure.
Bertolucci, director of "The Last Emperor" and "Little Buddha," who claims credit for the "story" clearly had a little help. This is a quasi-re-write for the '90s, Puccini replaced by Portishead and kissing by complete consummation.
Sent from the U.S. on the pretext of having her portrait done by an old family friend, Lucy joins him, his wife and their eclectic house guests in their rural villa.
There she encounters Alex (Jeremy Irons), in the last days of a terminal illness, who acts as her mentor; Noemi (Stefania Sandrelli), the "Dear Abby" for a major paper, whose cynicism crumbles as she gently falls in love too; and a selection of mafioso, art dealers and British ex-patriots who amble around the beautiful locations in various stages of undress, looking cool and confident.
Just about everyone is having sex in the way one is led to believe gorgeous, sensual people do, in gorgeous, sensual Italian villas. The day is one extended period of foreplay before the revels of the night. Except for Lucy.
The plot moves gently forward, flattering in its subtlety, allowing precise editing to do the work of words, never fearing silence.
Tyler may satisfy the beauty component of the title but she steals no scenes. Far from this being a criticism, it is the ensemble effect that eventually makes the film work. Tyler's performance is nonetheless strong, conveying with a mere look the bewilderment accompanying her growing insight into the world of the surrounding, jaded adults.
She does not however develop in any real sense in the course of the film, perhaps relying on the assumption that her deflowering will show progress enough.
It is as much a fault of the director that she finds love too late in the film to show its effects, as any more than a sudden, rosy glow in the cheeks.
If our attention is drawn to any outstanding aspect of the film's mechanics, it is to the cinematography. That is the work of Darius Khondji who recently completed the outstanding "Seven."
From the sun-drenched garden, where voluptuous wooden sculptures reside beside human counterparts, to the delicate frescos of an old stone castle at dusk, sets are made both luscious and alluring.
"Stealing Beauty" provides the same sort of indulgent pleasure as drowsing in bed long after you have ceased to sleep, but are far from ready to face the world.
Although unashamedly romantic it does contain darker elements, doubtlessly in order to give a suitable air of profundity, but keeps them in check within the carefully toned shadow of a Tuscan sunset.
