Taglines: Between a mother and son. Between the delicate boundaries of love.
La Luna movie storyline. The tumultuous life of a troubled teen is examined in this controversial film from Bernardo Bertolucci. Joe, the boy in question, has been spoiled and is in dire need of a strong father figure. His stepfather Douglas, who believes that he sired the boy with his wife Caterina, an opera singer, is simply unable to deal with him.
Joe continues to get in trouble. After he watches his despondent “father” commit suicide, the boy and his mother move to Italy where she tries to make a comeback. The boy soon finds himself involved with a bad crowd and becomes a heroin addict. His poor frazzled mother almost has a breakdown when she and her son almost become lovers. Before the end of the film, Joe finally gets to meet his real father, Giuseppi, who has been hiding in Italy and teaching children. It is he who saves the boy from descending further into a life of darkness and degradation.
La Luna, also known as Luna, is a 1979 Italian American film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and starring Jill Clayburgh. The film concerns the troubled life of a teenage boy and his relationship with his parents, including an incestuous relationship with his mother.
About the Story
Joe (Matthew Barry) is the son of famous opera singer Caterina Silveri (Jill Clayburgh). While he believes that Caterina’s husband, Douglas Winter (Fred Gwynne), is his biological father, the truth is that Joe was sired by Caterina’s former lover, who is now living in Italy and working as a schoolteacher.
Joe, moody and spoiled, needs a strong father figure to guide and discipline him, but Douglas is aloof and largely indifferent to parenting. When Joe witnesses the sudden death of Douglas in New York City, it leaves him angry and distraught. Caterina, unwilling to continue residing in Manhattan after Douglas’ death, decides to move to Italy with her son. There, Joe begins associating with a dangerous crowd and becomes addicted to heroin.
Caterina is heartbroken and hopes to lure her son back to a safer and more healthful lifestyle. She tries in many instances to get closer emotionally to her son hoping that increased contact will prevail over the allure of the drugs. She even contacts his drug dealer to ask for sympathy for her situation. At one point, when Joe is desperate for a fix, his mother masturbates him just to get his mind off drugs temporarily.
Seeing no other alternative, she decides to drive to the location they originally lived, where her estranged lover lives with the hope that some sort of fatherly bond will cure her son. Along the way, tensions, some sexual, derail and prolong the trip. Eventually the son is dropped off at the ex’s home, but Joe, rather than telling his father that he is his son, says that he is instead a friend of his son, and that his son overdosed on heroin after lifelong turmoil over the absence of his biological father.
With some sort of closure achieved for the boy, he returns to his mother, who is preparing for an opera. Embracing, they reaffirm their love for each other, and together the son and his father, who has come to watch the performance, and who now knows Joe’s true identity as his child, hear Caterina sing at her very best.
La Luna (1979)
Directed by: Bernardo Bertolucci
Starring: Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, Veronica Lazar, Renato Salvatori, Tomas Milian, Alida Valli, Elisabetta Campeti, Roberto Benigni, Carlo Verdone, Peter Eyre, Sara Di Nepi
Screenplay by: Giuseppe Bertolucci, Clare Peploe, Bernardo Bertolucci
Cinematography by: Vittorio Storaro
Film Editing by: Gabriella Cristiani
Costume Design by: Lina Nerli Taviani
Art Direction by: Maria Paola Maino, Gianni Silvestri
Music by: Ennio Morricone
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: September 30, 1979
Visits: 1939