«Under the cover of heaven» by Director Bernardo Bertocucci. Country-Italy, 1990. John Malkovich, Debra Winger, Campbell Scott and others.
The 1949 novel by author Paul Bowles, «under the cover of heaven,» was recognized by critics as the only post-war book published in the United States, which carried the stamp of contemporary existential experience.
In the film, the accents of the novel are being redistributed. Bertobucci puts his wife, not Porta, at the forefront: running off with a caravan, an affair with a Tuareg, the ultimate loss of himself in the maze of someone else’s city. And Port’s death isn’t like a breakup, it’s like the amputation of half of his wife’s creature. As a result, the author on the screen utters a famous monologue about the sky as «hard stuff,» but the director claims with his work that the sky does not protect or hide. It just doesn’t say a word.
Despite financial failure and a lack of love for the novel’s painting, «under the cover of heaven» received awards from BAFTA and the Boston Society of Film Critics for the work of the cameraman Vittorio Storro, the Golden Globe for soundtrack (Ryuti Sakamoto and Richard Horowitz) and the American National Society of Film Critics, which was presented to Debra Winger as the best actress.