Debra Winger, John Malkovich, Jill Bennett I

Master filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci applies his considerable talent to this haunting adaptation of the Paul Bowles novel. John Malkovich and Debra Winger play Port and Kit Moresby, characters loosely...( read more  read more... ) based on Bowles and his wife Jane, who flee New York for North Africa, where they hope to find mystical truths that will reignite the spark of their marriage. But instead they lose their moral bearings (with help from a friend, played by Campbell Scott, who has an affair with Kit) while traveling deeper and deeper into the Sahara. Before long, what started as a vacation at exotic lodgings has descended into a tour of hell, as they stumble farther and farther into an unknowable spiritual territory. Though long and at times slow-moving, the film features marvelously nuanced acting by Malkovich and Winger and visionary filmmaking that makes the landscape at once picturesque and threatening. --Marshall Fine

Flixster Users

81% liked it

4,495 ratings

Critics

43% liked it

21 critics

R, 2 hrs. 15 min.

Directed by: Bernardo Bertolucci

Release Date: January 1, 1990

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DVD Release Date: May 14, 2002

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Flixster Reviews (219)


  • September 29, 2008
    So damned vast.
  • September 27, 2008
    A painfully long movie...
  • March 22, 2008
    Bertolucci's worst film. I would rather tear my eyes out than see this again.
  • August 27, 2009
    Nunca las dunas del desierto me gustaron tanto...
  • June 29, 2009
    My favourite film in the world, Bernardo Bertolucci is a genious. An adaptation from Paul Bowles amazing novel. Fantastic!
  • June 7, 2009
    They had to keep that really bad sex scene in I guess because it explains the title; otherwise a flawless movie.
  • March 25, 2009
    Malcovich and Debra Winger in a great film







    Wonderful photography, story and the whole atmosphere in the film
  • June 7, 2008
    gorgeous but a bit long....like it
  • April 2, 2008
    The worst!!! When its finally over you find yourself asking, how can so many talented people make something this pretentious and odious.
  • March 17, 2008
    not one of my favs from bertolucci

Critic Reviews


January 1, 2000
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

The book is so complete, so deep and so self-contained that it shuts the movie out. Bertolucci shows us the outsides and the surfaces, and a person seeing this movie without having read the book might... full review

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The Sheltering Sky Trivia


  • John Malkovich as Port & Debra Winger as Kit who travel to the Sahara?  Answer »
  • Which actress links the movies "Terms of Endearment", "Black Widow", "Legal Eagles", "The Sheltering Sky", "Radio" and "Forget Paris"?  Answer »
  • Who starred with Debra Winger in "The Sheltering Sky"?  Answer »

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