Besieged

This film is predicated on smaller victories, however. Heroine Shandurai (Thandie Newton) left Africa when her husband was made a political prisoner, and she numbs her grief in Rome by keeping busy at medical school. By day she earns her keep cleaning house for Mr. Kinsky (David Thewlis), the classical pianist who inherited the villa in which they both live. When Kinsky finally admits his infatuation with his downstairs tenant, she shocks him by demanding that he free her husband. What follows is a profound sacrifice that reminds these two frightened people that the differences between them need not be insurmountable. BESIEGED is partly about getting to know people by looking at them, and the film itself seems nearly wordless. Bertolucci charts emotion in handheld close-up shots and wraps his principals in rich color, texture, and music. Rome is modern and sumptuous at the same time, just as the villa is nestled between a busy subway station and the Spanish Steps. The small-narrative feel is no accident; the film is based on a short story by James Lasdun. [Less]