"The Sheltering Sky" (1990)

Tunner, we're not tourists. We're travelers

In foreword to 1998 rerelease of «The Sheltering Sky» Paul Bowles wrote not-so-praising words about screen adaption of this book, done by Bernardo Bertolucci, summarizing them by those words: «But the less said about the film now, the better». Bernardo Bertolucci, recalling the experience of making «The Conformist» - an adaptation of the same titled novel by Alberto Moravia, said, that sometimes necessary to «betray» the book in order to make the film faithful to it. «The Conformist» was such good betrayal, that it even surpassed the book. Could we say the same words about «The Sheltering Sky»?

In the early 1980s, Bernardo Bertolucci was in a state of the great artistic crisis and in order to overcome it, he went to LA in order to fulfill his old dream – to make an adaptation of «Red Harvest» by Dashiell Hammett. After spending four fruitless years in LA, Bertolucci went to, back then the most unusual place, China. In this country, he regained inspiration and made «The Last Emperor». And the most important of all, after visiting China Bertolucci started again to love the West. So, the story about a couple, which travels to Sahara, in order to repair the marriage, seemed interesting to the Director.

Paul Bowles book is quite hard to adapt as a standard two-hour film. «The Sheltering Sky» is full of stories and important dialogues, which all should be adapted in the film. And, finally, the director must picture the alienation of two Americans in alien and hostile Sahara, which destroy any intruder. Before watching, I thought, that Bertolucci would be able to pull it off.

In the beginning of the novel, an Arab Smail tells Port Moresby a parable about three Arab girls, who are desiring to drink tea on the highest dune of Sahara (which were not, strangely, integrated in the film). They were able to get to the highest dune of Sahara and have decided to get a little sleep before tea. A few weeks later, a passing caravan found three dead girls and their cups were full of sand.

Port and Kit Moresby are the representatives of NYC intellectual bohemians. Port is a composer; Kit is a playwright. Their feelings have ceded and Port, hoping to breathe new life into dying marriage, convinces Kit to take a trip to the Northern Africa. Tunner forces himself as a companion on the trip, and they start their trip. After getting rid of Tunner, Port takes Kit to the heart of Sahara, but he gets a typhoid fever.

In the beginning of «Lawrence of Arabia», Diplomat Dryden tell to Lieutenant Lawrence the following words: « Lawrence, only two kinds of creatures get fun in the desert: Bedouins and gods, and you're neither». Port thinks that the desert would purify him, and after crossing it with Kit, they would emerge as new people, who love each other. In order to achieve this, Port even agrees to forfeit his identity. In reality, the desert would do anything to destroy the aliens.

Sadly, Bernardo Bertolucci was not able to completely portray the ideas of Paul Bowles. While watching, you constantly feel, that the film lacks something, which makes it great, compared to «The Last Emperor». The Director focuses on a theme of combatting the family crisis and basically kept out such themes, as the said «three sisters» parable, clash between European, American and Arab culture and threw away a certain amount of secondary characters.

Another substantial weakness of «The Sheltering Sky» is a choice of an actress for the role of Kit. While Debra Winger is assisted by John Malkovich, she is quite OK. But in the third part of novel, Kit steps out and Debra Winger is not too convincing.  That is why, the process of Kit’s spiritual degradation is not portrayed good enough. Despite that, the other actors filled their roles quite convincingly.

Despite the flaws of meaning, the form is beyond all praise. Bernardo Bertolucci was able to capture a very beautiful shots of desert , which is ruthless and hostile for strangers, and views of shabby Arab towns, full of flies and beggars. Ryuichi Sakamoto soundtrack deserves a separate mention. His music tunes a viewer to a right wave, which is never quite fully emerges.

The best films of Bertolucci are visually and intellectually stunning. Sadly, this time, the visual thing has prevailed over the intellectual one, and that is why the film is weaker than the best films of Bertolucci. Despite that, I don’t agree with Paul Bowles critique and I consider this film as worthy of watching, but I recommend you to read the book before that.

On the Law of Nations by Daniel Patrick Moynihan

A political culture from which the idea of international law has largely disappeared places its initiatives in jeopardy

Thanks to the Wikipedia, I knew that Daniel Patrick Moynihan was a member of the United States Senate from New York for 24 years. Nevertheless, until recently I have never done any serious research about DPM. It all has changed one fall day in Moscow at home while I was searching the C-SPAN website for some interesting Senate videos. I have decided to watch 1992 debate about Freedom Support Act (U.S. Aid to Former Soviet Union). It was short and participants were mostly extraordinary: Claiborne Pell, Dick Lugar, Alan Cranston, and Mitch McConnell (he is not extraordinary at all except for making history with self-filibustering his own proposal last year). Finally, Daniel Patrick Moynihan rose to speak and it was grandiloquent. Firstly, instead of talking about the pros and cons of this bill (financial obligations, opening new markets for American products and etc.) Moynihan told a story about meeting with The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the RSFSR, which took place in 1990. Secondly, Moynihan style of clothing (bow tie, bookish spectacles) and his look were much more suited for Harvard lecture hall. Thirdly, his voice and patrician style of speaking, which you could hear only in BBC movies about Middle England nowadays. Of course, I have decided to read some of his books…

«On the Law of Nations» was published in 1990 at the epochal point of world history. The Cold War has effectively finished and in the United Nations USSR and USA, for the first time since Suez Crisis (1956), found a common ground in punishing aggressor, Saddam Hussein. In addition, the 1990s were proclaimed the «Decade of International Law» by the UN resolution 44/23 of 17 November 1989.

Book starts with the quote from The Constitution of the United States (treaties… shall be the supreme law of the land). Then author recounts his talk to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. This talk took place in 1979 and the main theme was the proposition that the US has abandoned the concept that international relations can and should be governed by a regime of public international law. This theme is solidified by numerous violations of international law by the Reagan Administration: death squads in Salvador, the mining of Nicaraguan harbors and Iran-Contra. In addition, regrettably, the intellectual and political thought of the 1980s regarded international law as an illusion or an obstacle to the American interests («Real men did not cite Grotius»).

Moynihan makes a thesis that this nihilism and disdain for the international law was not the core part of the American legal theory and practice and he is trying to find out the reasons for it. As he points out, in the 19^th century, the US resolved Alabama claims with Britain by the means of arbitration, instead of war. In addition, the Federalist Papers and the Declaration of Independence placed international law as a vital part of the American legal system, and the Founding Fathers respected international law (or as it was called then «the natural law»).

The Senator makes a point that after Treaty of Versailles has been killed in the United States Senate international law lost its attractiveness. There was a renaissance during FDR years, starting with joining the International Labor Organisation and build-up of the United Nations. Then, after the beginning of Cold War international law again became declarative, especially international humanitarian and human rights.

The 1990’s presents an opportunity for the Renaissance and adherence to international law is the way to insure safe, civilized proper behavior as the US approach the next century. Moynihan see first positive signs with the adoption East-West Code of Conduct, Soviets making case for The Hague Court and European Conventions…

Personally, I would like to say that it is a brilliant book and, since works of Churchill, De Gaulle and Talleyrand by Duff Cooper (1932), I have never read such intellectually compelling book written by a politician. And, sadly, Moynihan dreams hasn’t come true because international law nowadays even more disdained  and violated, Iraq War is the perfect example. However, maybe if someone would read this book, he would understand the importance of international law and would follow in Mister Moynihan footsteps.

Sadly, the breed of Moynihan-like statesman is gone and we must bring it back, starting with ourselves, to make the world a better place. And in conclusion, I yield the floor with this review (US Senate word: senator who has been recognized to speak stops when she completes her remarks and terminates her recognition) and I hope that after reading this book someone would take the floor and stress the importance of the international law.