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disappointment after sensing that he is not appreciated. Significantly, in the preceding
sequence, a would-be lothario whom Caterina uses to fuel Joe's jealousy, introduces himself
to her by saying 'I am a Communist', explaining to her that the relevance of this information
lies in the fact that Caterina is American'. The man's affirmation leads Caterina to treat him
as a fool, and their bizarre exchange, whose significance is unclear from a narrative
perspective, makes more sense if interpreted as a sardonic reflection from Bertolucci about
America's single minded political attitude.
The film's sexual escalation begins with a situation which Bertolucci himself
described as 'the ultimate, extreme maternal gesture' (Ungari, 1982: 140) when, to alleviate
her son's drug withdrawal symptoms, Caterina gives in to Joe grasping her hand and moving
it down his body to masturbate him. But Bertolucci's handling of the scene transforms it from
an unorthodox, disturbing but practical act to relieve the boy's suffering to a scene charged
with titillation. This evolves from the close-ups of the characters' hands on Joe's body, before
the sexual charge is increased by close-ups of Caterina bringing Joe's mouth to her breast
while masturbating him. Another such moment occurs when Caterina re-enacts former life
experiences as she takes Joe to visit Emilia Romagna in central Italy. At a certain point
during the journey, she reveals to Joe that his real father, who was not her late husband
Douglas, had kissed her for the first time at the place where they have stopped. She kisses
him playfully on the lips twice, provoking Joe into grabbing her and kissing her with more
intent, to which she responds with a prolonged sensual kiss. The effect of this upon viewers
may range from emotional estrangement to cognitive perplexity at behaviour justified neither
by social norms nor by earlier 'evidence' in the film's own narrative scheme. This response,
curiously, was shared by Bertolucci himself, who said of this sequence:
It is the one I feel most uncomfortable with. Caterina kisses Joe for no apparent reason [...] And she
kisses him as one kisses a lover. Earlier on it was the mother who was helping the son. But, there, I
don't quite understand it myself (Roud, 1979: 141).
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