The Sheltering Sky

The Sheltering Sky (1990)

  • 50% of critics liked it
    (24 reviews)

  • 76% of users liked it
    (5,290 ratings)

From director Bernardo Bertolucci, The Sheltering Sky is a filmed adaptation of the novel of the same name by Paul Bowles. Debra Winger and John Malkovich star as Kit and Port Moresby, a married American couple who globetrot to North Africa in the late '40s with the hopes of re-sparking their… More

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R,
Directed By
Genres
Drama, Action & Adventure
In Theaters
Jan 1, 1990 Wide
Warner Home Video

Critic Reviews

  • Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

    A disappointingly reductive adaptation of Paul Bowles's first novel.

  • Variety Staff, Variety

    Those who haven't read the book will be left bewildered.

  • , Time Out

    As you'd expect, it's a big, handsome film, rich and strange in psychological depths and eroticism. Malkovich and Winger play woundingly well.

  • Vincent Canby, New York Times

    A long, beautifully modulated cry of despair.

  • 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 ask what it is about.

Read all 13 critic reviews

See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Emil K


    Another stunningly photographed and atmospheric film by great Italian Bertolucci. This is a unexpected journey and a very erotic one too. It has heartbreakingly wonderful score Ryuichi Sakamoto that amps the isolation and the loneliness of the desert, which plays a big part in the… More

  • jay n


    The worst!!! When its finally over you find yourself asking, how can so many talented people make something this pretentious and odious.

  • Mike T


    I would feel like I was overlooking some considerable flaws if I called this movie perfect, but I am perfectly okay with saying that I loved it. Bertolucci's direction is as powerful as ever, controlling tone and atmosphere with the precision we expect from him. This is among his… More

  • Audrey L


    A painfully long movie...

  • Anthony V


    Bertolucci's worst film. I would rather tear my eyes out than see this again.

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