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American filmgoers. The fickle, inaccessible mother Caterina - in metaphorical terms,
America and its audiences - proves, affectively, to be a source of frustration and resentment
for her son Joe, and if credibility is given to the notion of Joe being a cypher for Bertolucci,
giving the director a narrative presence, other manifestations of his presence that alter the
filnTs mood take the form of moments of self-affirmation that emerge in the virtual tour
through Bertolucci's cinematic memories that occurs at certain points in the film. This seems
to function primarily for Bertolucci's own benefit, and it accounts for Kolker's cutting
remark that La lima is 'a film for the solitary pleasure of its maker' (Kolker, 1985: 154).
In affective terms, resentment surfaces from the relationship depicted in the film,
where the mother is guilty of not listening and not understanding, whereas the son's troubles
reside in a teenager's typical fragility and naivety. This chapter asserts that Joe embodies
elements of Bertolucci's contemporary mindset, initially reflecting his idealistic craving for
the non-listening and non-understanding American audience - symbolized by Caterina and
then regaining lucidity by returning his attention to his cinematic origins. This situation is
reflected in the film by the slap that Joe receives from his biological father. Continuing the
metaphor of the film's characters embodying the perspectives of real-life figures, it might be
asserted that Joe's father brings the boy/Bertolucci back to his senses, the character evoking
Pasolini's influential role in Bertolucci's cinematic career and sharing biographical
similarities with Pasolini such as living in Rome with his mother. Pasolini's pedagogical role,
broadening the minds of individuals regarding human existence, is reflected in the film
through Joe's father's profession as a teacher, echoing that of Cesare, another possible
Pasolini cypher, in Before the Revolution. Consequently, the following outline of the film's
cognitive and affective structures will centre on the uncomplicated scheme of the narration,
the implications of the film's sketchy development of the protagonists' psychological traits
and the limited narrative justification of their actions, and the incongruous deployment of
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