{"id":5695,"date":"2008-06-20T08:08:50","date_gmt":"2008-06-20T15:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5695"},"modified":"2021-03-02T20:16:48","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T03:16:48","slug":"luna-1979","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5695","title":{"rendered":"Luna (1979)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;He&#8217;s different from the others &#8212; he&#8217;s very lonely&#8230; You know that.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/Luna-Poster-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/Luna-Poster-1-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-67326\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/Luna-Poster-1-198x300.jpg 198w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/Luna-Poster-1-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/Luna-Poster-1-178x270.jpg 178w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/Luna-Poster-1.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nAfter the untimely death of her husband (Fred Gwynne), an opera singer (Jill Clayburgh) takes her teenage son (Matthew Barry) with her to Italy, and soon finds herself immersed in a desperate battle to save him from heroin addiction.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Alcoholism and Drug Addiction<\/li>\n<li>Alida Valli Films<\/li>\n<li>Bernardo Bertolucci Films<\/li>\n<li>Expatriates<\/li>\n<li>Incest and Incestuous Overtones<\/li>\n<li>Jill Clayburgh Films<\/li>\n<li>Singers<\/li>\n<li>Single Mothers<\/li>\n<li>Widows and Widowers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nBernardo Bertolucci&#8217;s infamous Oedipal tale about a self-absorbed opera diva and the incestuous love she exhibits towards her deeply troubled teenage son was panned by critics upon its release, with Vincent Canby of the <em>New York Times<\/em> referring to it as &#8220;one of the most sublimely foolish movies ever made by a director of Mr. Bertolucci&#8217;s acknowledged talents&#8221;, and Roger Ebert unabashedly proclaiming that &#8220;Bertolucci has sprung his gourd this time.&#8221; Nowadays, <em>Luna<\/em> is considered an undiscovered masterpiece by a handful of devoted followers &#8212; who refer to it on IMDb as a &#8220;superb film&#8221;, a &#8220;flawed masterpiece&#8221;, a &#8220;bizarre, surreal melodrama&#8221;, and &#8220;ultimate beauty in its purest form&#8221; &#8212; but I&#8217;m in agreement with the critical elite: despite its fine production values and cinematography (it&#8217;s undeniably beautiful to look at), <em>Luna<\/em> remains a laughable mess of a film, one which consistently defies literal interpretation and possesses far too much unintentional camp value to be taken seriously. While viewers are clearly meant to interpret the tale as archetypically Freudian &#8212; complete with a convenient &#8220;missing father figure&#8221; denouement &#8212; only those with an abiding belief in the veracity of psychoanalysis (such as Bertolucci himself at the time) will find any genuine nuggets of psychological insight here. <\/p>\n<p>After the first promising 15 minutes or so (during which Fred Gwynne&#8217;s level-headed character is, unfortunately, killed off), nothing about the overblown storyline comes across as remotely realistic: Barry&#8217;s heroin addiction is never authentically introduced or sustained; peripheral characters disappear with maddening whimsicality (what ever happened to Barry&#8217;s new Italian girlfriend, for instance?); and Clayburgh&#8217;s response to her son&#8217;s problem &#8212; while refreshingly removed from &#8220;afternoon special of the week&#8221; banality &#8212; is far too conveniently sublimated into titillatingly incestuous interactions. Clayburgh (fresh from her success in Paul Mazursky&#8217;s <em>An Unmarried Woman<\/em>) seems to be trying her best with the material she&#8217;s been given, but her character is ultimately such a mess of unappealing contradictions that it can&#8217;t be salvaged; Barry, meanwhile, never fully inhabits his character&#8217;s neurotic personality &#8212; instead, he simply shifts at a moment&#8217;s notice between petulant teen and (supposed) raging addict. While viewers may find some enjoyment in the film&#8217;s overall campiness &#8212; such as the infamous scene in which Barry erotically licks his mother&#8217;s dirt-encrusted face, or when Clayburgh tries to release some tension by doing aerobics with her lesbian pursuer &#8212; <em>Luna<\/em> is ultimately far too frustrating to recommend. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Vittorio Storaro&#8217;s lush cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/luna-cinematography.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/luna-cinematography.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-5697\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNo; while it has a small following, and was somewhat notorious upon its release, it&#8217;s certainly not must-see viewing any longer. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0079495\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1979\/09\/28\/archives\/film-new-bertolucci-opens-17th-festivalmother-and-son.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=878&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rogerebert.com\/reviews\/luna-1979\">Roger Ebert&#8217;s Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s different from the others &#8212; he&#8217;s very lonely&#8230; You know that.&#8221; Synopsis: After the untimely death of her husband (Fred Gwynne), an opera singer (Jill Clayburgh) takes her teenage son (Matthew Barry) with her to Italy, and soon finds herself immersed in a desperate battle to save him from heroin addiction. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Alcoholism and Drug Addiction Alida Valli Films Bernardo Bertolucci Films Expatriates Incest and Incestuous Overtones Jill Clayburgh Films Singers Single Mothers Widows and&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=5695\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5695"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70043,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5695\/revisions\/70043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}