Bertolucci - The Last Emperor

[Bobby Beksinski]

The Last Emperor is filled with marvelous images, set designs,
costumes, everything. The whole shebang as they say. A bonafide epic
and most likely worthy of all of the Oscar attention it did receive.
But is it a masterpiece? I personally don't think so. Bertolucci is a
strange director to me, one I cannot crack or get inside to, his
visual style is striking but not enough to pull me in. His character
developments and stories are not built to be the strong suit in his
films, so for most I am left dangling to attach. I want to find a
strong grip in his films, something to hold onto. Last Tango did that
for me somewhat mostly due to Brando's brilliance. The Last Emperor
began so nice and smoothly, it was in fact a great well directed and
scripted film in the first half. The second half is where the slow
descent began until we reached the end and I realize I no longer cared
for the film or any of the characters in it as I once had in the
beginning. Everything slowly slipped away out of the hands of
Bertolucci. The magic disappeared and the story became tedious jumping
from event to another big event. And suddenly 2 hours and 40 minutes
felt like 4 hours, by giving us the highlights and not a personal
journey like in the beginning, it became like a ongoing news-reel. I
still rate this film a 7/10 because what I said in the beginning is
true throughout, the film is well crafted and worth watching but the
story does fall flat in the second half.

[Thorkell A. Ottarsson]

I find that is a problem with many of his films Bobby, they start out
great, often get better in the middle part but fall apart at the end.

Thorkell