THE SHELTERING SKY (1990)

THE SHELTERING SKY (R) In Bernardo Bertolucci's adaptation of Paul Bowles' 1949 novel, two restless, globe-trotting Americans, Port and Kit Moresby (John Malkovich and Debra Winger), journey into post-World War II North Africa, moving through a series of increasingly primitive and dilapidated cities. Their marriage has reached a state of creeping stagnation and despair. At the same time, the two are being engulfed by a daily physical nightmare. Bad food, flies, disease-it's a Third World heart of darkness. Bertolucci makes a heroic attempt to get at the elusive, inside-the-soul material of Bowles' novel. Yet the novel may not actually be filmable. The last part of the movie is devoted to Kit's ironic liberation at the hands of a bedouin noble. Though Winger gives an accomplished performance, she's too strong and erotic an actress to play a woman who undergoes this kind of sensual awakening. Her very presence cancels out Bowles' insular bleakness. B

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