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Luna

Play trailer Poster for Luna R 1979 2h 24m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
46% Tomatometer 13 Reviews 69% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
Teenager Joe Silveri (Matthew Barry) has a troubled relationship with his mother, Caterina (Jill Clayburgh), a renowned opera singer, and her husband, Douglas Winter (Fred Gwynne). After Douglas commits suicide, Caterina moves to Rome to join an opera tour, taking Joe with her. However, Joe becomes increasingly unstable and develops a heroin addiction. Sensing her son is slipping away, Caterina attempts to form a closer bond with him, but the two soon develop an unusual relationship.

Critics Reviews

View All (13) Critics Reviews
Bilge Ebiri Village Voice Luna seduces and repels you at the same time. It's a film about the silences and cruelties between people, but it explodes with color, music, and movement. Apr 21, 2016 Full Review Richard Brody New Yorker Channelling a Viscontian elegance, Bernardo Bertolucci probes the allure of bourgeois excess to its core of perverse desire-and ultimately suggests that it's made of frustrated dreams of normalcy. Apr 18, 2016 Full Review Gilbert Adair Sight & Sound In elegance, rapidity of execution and perfection of expression, Bertolucci is the cinema's Stendhal. Aug 2, 2015 Full Review Jesús Fernández Santos El Pais (Spain) The script is poor and the story will only convince Bernardo Bertolucci's devout fans. [Full Review in Spanish] Aug 8, 2019 Full Review Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com "Luna" is an indefensible film because it is built on unsupported narrative clichs that Bertolucci never resolves. Rated: D Feb 7, 2017 Full Review TV Guide Bernardo Bertolucci's excessive look into the life of a troubled teenager created quite a stir upon its original release. Rated: 1.5/5 Aug 2, 2015 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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steve d Predictable melodrama. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review william k A movie, just as sleazy as its plot line suggests, gets an artsy treatment, so there a few good set pieces, but generally it's quite a disappointment. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member cheio de uma variedade de temas - enredos e subtramas que se fundem assimetricamente em um molde melodramático.que se baseia em clichês narrativos sem suporte que Bertolucci nunca resolve Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/13/23 Full Review Audience Member Absolute masterpiece of film making. Rest in Peace, Miss Jill Clayburge. Bertolucci tackles a taboo subject (incest) and somehow does not exploit it. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Just a word of caution for those purchasing this incredible Bertolucci masterpiece in its current release (finally!) from Kino Lorber on BluRay -- The audio is defective. All the sections that have music are so distorted that it's painful to listen to. Luckily the film has very few moments where music is actually playing so at least that is a blessing, but where the opera music is played, it is atrocious. How it could be remastered this badly and no one noticed is beyond comprehension. Even the front menu audio is totally distorted. Didn't anyone at KL check this before it was mastered? Anyway, that is just a technical mishap -- KL should remaster this very worthy title and offer to replace the defective discs already sold. That said, it shouldn't stop anyone from getting their hands on this stunning work -- I would say it is Bertolucci's BEST work and even more controversial than LAST TANGO. It has been hard to find for more than a few decades and now finally it is available. Bertolucci fans rejoice. Oedipus fans delight. -----SPOILER ALERT -- SPOILER ALERT------ Something is revealed in this version that is VERY significant that you didn't get when it was first released. In the scene under the bleachers, there is a dialog overdub. Listen carefully (you can actually hear the audio change), and watch the mouth movement -- what you hear and what everyone has heard since it's release is, "They won't arrest me, I'm crazy." But that is NOT the original line that Bertolucci wrote or intended to use, but he had to change it to avoid even more controversy than the producers already were afraid the film would generate, possibly even get it banned. The original line is, "They can't arrest me, I'm pregnant." That is an effin MAJOR change and on how you will look at the story. And yes, that may have caused the film to be banned in quite a few countries, at least back in 1977. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member This is the strangest film Bertolucci ever made. It left me scratching my head. Too well done to be dismissed as "perverse trash" -- and yet, this is the over-all feeling that took me mid-point into the story. The film is done in the style of an opera. Bertolucci actually treats the uncomfortable, statutory rape and incestual result of a mother's desperation and her son's drug-addled confusion as secondary. And, then, he composes an all too easy resolution. Like opera, this is not reality. Vittorio Storaro's camera work is lush, interesting and beautiful. Jill Clayburgh gives it all for this film including odd and unnecessary genitalia close-up shots. The work here is solid. The story here is off-putting and disturbing. The problem with this story is it is not clear where Bertolucci stands on the unforgivable actions of a self-obsessed mother. But, maybe that isn't the point. Not for all tastes. If you are not a devoted lover of the works of Vittorio Storaro, Bernardo Bertolucci or Clayburgh -- you will most likely want to avoid this ambitious, ambiguous and ultimately plain odd late 1970's film. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Luna

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Movie Info

Synopsis Teenager Joe Silveri (Matthew Barry) has a troubled relationship with his mother, Caterina (Jill Clayburgh), a renowned opera singer, and her husband, Douglas Winter (Fred Gwynne). After Douglas commits suicide, Caterina moves to Rome to join an opera tour, taking Joe with her. However, Joe becomes increasingly unstable and develops a heroin addiction. Sensing her son is slipping away, Caterina attempts to form a closer bond with him, but the two soon develop an unusual relationship.
Director
Bernardo Bertolucci
Producer
Giovanni Bertolucci
Screenwriter
Giuseppe Bertolucci, Clare Peploe, Bernardo Bertolucci
Production Co
Fiction Cinematografica
Rating
R
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (DVD)
Dec 6, 2016
Runtime
2h 24m