The Sheltering Sky

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Bernardo Bertolucci directs. Vittorio Storaro behind the camera. Ryuichi Sakamoto scores. Gabriella Cristiani cuts. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in Italy, United Kingdom. Dialogue in Arabic, English, French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Earned back only 8% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
• 236 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
• 3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: Arabic, English, French.
• 4International production across 2 countries: Italy, United Kingdom.
• 5Directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, shot by Vittorio Storaro. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 6Original score by Ryuichi Sakamoto. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 7Editor Gabriella Cristiani shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 8Debra Winger and John Malkovich and Campbell Scott carry the top of the cast.
• 9Marketing tagline: "A woman's dangerous and erotic journey...".
• 10IMDB entry: tt0100594 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography

Vittorio Storaro

Original score

Ryuichi Sakamoto

Editing

Gabriella Cristiani

Production design

Ferdinando Scarfiotti

Costume design

James Acheson

Runtime

138 min · 2h 18m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Budget

$25,000,000

Box office

$2,075,084

Return

8% of budget

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

The Sheltering Sky (1990) ↗

Also by

Bernardo Bertolucci

• 
  The Path of Oil

  1967 · ★ 8.5
• 
  Il canale

  1966 · ★ 8.0
• 
  1900

  1976 · ★ 7.8
• 
  The Conformist

  1971 · ★ 7.6
• 
  The Last Emperor

  1987 · ★ 7.6
• 
  The Dreamers

  2003 · ★ 7.2

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  The Sheltering Sky (1990) Theatrical Trailer 35mm FLAT

  Trailer
• 

  ▶
  The Sheltering Sky 1990 TV trailer

  Teaser
• 

  ▶
  Official Trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• CinemaSerf2025-02-15
  ★ 6/10

  When “Kit” (Debra Winger) and her husband “Port” (John Malkovich) realise that their relationship is running out of steam, they decide to head into the Moroccan desert and rejuvenate their lives. Things don’t quite get off to the start he’d want though as he quickly finds himself in an erotic knocking shop complete with noisy chickens whilst befriended by the rather sexually ambiguous and sweaty “Eric” (Timothy Spall) and his frugal mother (Jill Bennett). They have their uses, though, as his wife and their friend “George” (Campbell Scott) have headed into the interior and he wants to pursue. It’s upon this journey that we realise, through some narration, that nobody here has ever been especially honest with the other and that any solution that may emerge here will be, at best, an hybrid of what they wanted/expected or even dreamt. Though both Winger and Malkovich take the lead here, and deliver competently, I found it was actually the supporting cast that worked better at illustrating the toxicity of this scenario. Spall, especially, but also the native tribespeople who take part and who viscerally illustrate the contrast between our two amidst marital turbulence and societies that subsist amidst the arid, fly-infested yet beautiful villages of the northern Sahara. It’s that photography, reminiscent of the Jack Cardiff, that conveys a marvellous combination of the passive, the manic and the serene as the people gradually diminish into a timeless vista that for me, anyway, symbolised the superfluous nature of mankind and the irrelevance of our, largely self-inflicted, problems. As to the conclusion of the story, well I have to say that I didn’t really care one way or the other about these spoiled and rather selfish characters whose melodrama and peccadilloes didn’t really matter in a grander scheme of things. It’s that uninteresting story that dragged this down for me, that and the fact that Bertolucci seemed intent on peppering the film with sex scenes as if to compensate for a broader lack of something more substantial to demonstration any kind of emotional connection between just about any of these characters. It is a great looking film to watch but as a story I found it a little on the shallow side.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Recorded Picture Company

  GB

• AL

  Aldrich Group

• FI

  Film Trustees Ltd.

• TA

  TAO Film

  IT

Key crew

• NovelPaul Bowles
• EditorGabriella Cristiani
• CastingCelestia Fox
• CastingJuliet Taylor
• Production DesignFerdinando Scarfiotti
• Production DesignGianni Silvestri
• Art DirectionAndrew Sanders
• Costume DesignJames Acheson
• Executive ProducerWilliam Aldrich
• ProducerJeremy Thomas
• Still PhotographerAngelo Novi
• PresenterJeremy Thomas

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• adultery
• africa
• sahara desert
• extramarital affair

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical1990-12-12R

Also known as

International titles

• Pod pokrovom nebesRU
• 遮蔽的天空TW