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mother's attentions - Caterina's singing career, which absorbs her - is inadequately
addressed. As regards the weakness of the secondary characters and storylines, this chapter's
analysis concurs with contemporary criticism of the film for introducing lighter moments to
counterbalance the film's controversial subject matter. The view that many characters are
caricatures overloading the film with their depictions' seems appropriate (Grazzini, 1979:
102). This contributed to destabilize further the film's style and structure which were already
lacking organization. These factors doubtless aggravated the response from viewers and
critics who were familiar with Bertolucci's previous work, as La lima appeared to be
insubstantial by comparison, hi the context of his career, it remains isolated in terms of being
the only film featuring little of Bertolucci's technical sophistication or his habitual
exploration of cinema's potentialities; nor does it provide individual or social perspectives
that elicit reflection from viewers. On the other hand, if it is considered as a partly
autobiographical work, La luna configures itself almost as a stream of consciousness whose
articulation Bertolucci may have felt necessary in order to be able to recuperate his artistic
faculties, abilities that resurfaced as the subsequent film The Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man
demonstrated.
References
Branigan, E. (1992) Narrative Comprehension and Film, London and New York: Routledge.
Carroll, N. (1999) 'Film, Emotion and Genre \ in Plantinga, C. and Smith, G. (ed.)
Passionate Views, Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press.
Cornand, A. (1979) review in La Revue du Cinema, no.344, November, in Mirabella, JC. and
Pitiot, P. (ed.) (1999) Intervista a Bemardo Bertolucci, Rome: Gremese Editore.
Grazzini, G. (1979) review in // Corriere della Sera, 2 September, in Mirabella, JC. and
Pitiot, P. (ed.) (1999) Intervista a Bemardo Bertolucci, Rome: Gremese Editore.
Grodal, T. (1997) Moving Pictures, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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