Besieged

Bernardo Bertolucci’s intimate drama about love, desire, military repression, unconditional sacrifice and courtship by dumbwaiter uses images more than words for emotional impact. An English pianist (David Thewlis) in Rome falls in lust with the African medical student (Thandie Newton) who lives downstairs and cleans his flat. He throws himself into her arms only to be rebuffed and told he can only win her love by getting her husband released from jail. Uneven acting and an ambiguous ending may frustrate some viewers, but Bertolucci inventively turns a spiral staircase and soundtrack into supporting characters and saturates the film with sensuality.