Directed by Bernardo BertolluciStarring Jill Clayburgh, Matthew Barry
1979
La Luna (credited Luna) is a 1979 Italian 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. 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 him over the edge. In hopes of boosting her singing career, which has fallen into a rut, Caterina decides to move to Italy with her son. There, 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.
I have always admired the works of Bernardo Bertolluci because of the great "unpredictable" twists of storytelling, uncomparable cinematography. He will always be one of my favorite directors..
