An American couple travel abroad to revitalize their relationship. But as the trip drags on, their attempt at recovering what they once had seems futile.An American couple travel abroad to revitalize their relationship. But as the trip drags on, their attempt at recovering what they once had seems futile.An American couple travel abroad to revitalize their relationship. But as the trip drags on, their attempt at recovering what they once had seems futile.
- Won 1 BAFTA Award
- 9 wins & 8 nominations total
- Abdelkader
- (as Sotigui Kouyate)
- Smail
- (as Ben Smail)
- Mohamed
- (as Afifi Mohamed)
- Miss Ferry
- (as Carolyn de Fonseca)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaPaul Bowles, author - and thinly disguised subject - of the autobiographical novel on which the film is based, said, "It should never have been filmed. The ending is idiotic and the rest is pretty bad." This quote comes from a rare interview that was part of the film Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles (1998).
- GoofsThe crew is reflected in the mirror when Kit gets out of bed alone.
- Quotes
[last lines]
Narrator: Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well, yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more, perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless.
- SoundtracksGoulov Limma
Performed by Chaba Zahouania
Courtesy of Mango/Island/PolyGram Records
by arrangement with PolyGram Special Markets
© 1990 Island Records Ltd.
That's not to say Bertolucci and his contributors, especially cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, don't deserve a lot of credit for their work. This should probably be accepted as the industry standard for filming the scenery of North Africa. The title alone should tell you you're in for rich cinematography and in my opinion this is absolutely necessary to the telling of the story, but the scenery does tend to overwhelm the story at times.
Malkovich and Winger both give credible performances, but they seemed like strangers to me compared to the characters in the novel. Likewise the casting of the Lyles was excellent, but their role seemed abbreviated. I found Paul Bowles himself to be a captivating screen presence, though he's only on screen briefly as the narrator.
Ultimately the film is worth watching but constantly reminded me of the discrepancy between the two media, which isn't exactly an endearing quality.
- Ham_and_Egger
- Mar 24, 2006
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Languages
- Also known as
- Himmel über der Wüste
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $25,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $2,075,084
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $82,753
- Dec 16, 1990
- Gross worldwide
- $2,075,084
- Runtime2 hours 18 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1