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The sheltering sky novel7/8/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() The Sheltering Sky is Bernardo Bertolucci's retrospective view of the western psyche of the 1940's from the standpoint of the 1990's. Ladson Hinton, “The Abyss of Heaven,” The San Francisco Jung institute Library Journal, 2006, 25:4, 61-67. It set the stage for Bertolucci's next film, Little Buddha. ![]() However, the dreaming presence of the human imagination - of author, director and audience - provides rays of hope for the future. The drama leaves us with deep uncertainties about the possibility of meaning and the plight of western culture. They end, respectively, in death and madness. The couple, played by John Malkovich and Debra Winger, steadily loses a sense of personal and cultural identity as they travel more deeply into North Africa. Outstanding cinematography with images of desert and sky underline this mystery. The 'sheltering sky' motif ironically conveys an illusory comfort, perhaps an innocence that has been lost. Their experiences of the 'exotic other' often display an exploitive quasi-colonial mentality. Rather than reflecting upon and facing the unknown, they try to fill the void of meaning with compulsive 'travels'. The protagonists are 'sophisticated' New Yorkers: a couple deeply discontented with their marriage and lives, and their 'playboy' friend. The San Francísco Jung Instítute Líbrary Journal, 2006, 25:4, 61–67. ![]()
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