| Jill
Clayburgh, Matthew Barry, Renato Salvatori , Tomas Milian, Fred
Gwynne , Veronica Lazar , Iole Silvani
Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial
drama explores the troubled life of a young man and his troubling
relationship with his parents. Joe (Matthew Barry) is the son of
famous opera singer Caterina Silveri (Jill Clayburgh); while Joe
believes that Caterina's husband Douglas Winter (Fred Gwynne) is
his biological father, the truth is that he was sired by Caterina's
former lover, who is now living in Italy and working as a schoolteacher.
Joe is moody and rebellious and needs a strong father figure to
guide him and keep him in line. But Douglas is ineffectual and emotionally
weak, and when Joe witnesses Douglas committing suicide, it sends
the young man over the edge. In hopes of boosting her singing career,
which has fallen into a rut, Caterina decides to move to Italy,
with Joe in tow; Joe falls in with a dangerous crowd and becomes
addicted to heroin, while Caterina, hoping to lure her son back
to a safer and more healthy lifestyle, tries to become closer to
him, which leads to a flirtation with incest. Jill Clayburgh's performance
earned her a 1980 Golden Globe nomination.
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