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Stealing Beauty

Stealing Beauty

Drama · Romance · 1996

Lucy Harmon, an American teenager is arriving in the lush Tuscan countryside to be sculpted by a family friend who lives in a beautiful villa. Lucy visited there four years earlier and exchanged a kiss with an Italian boy with whom she hopes to become reacquainted.

Movie details

Stealing Beauty

“The most beautiful place to be is in love.”

1996 Drama · Romance 1h 56m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.7 / 10

Community rating

Lucy Harmon, an American teenager is arriving in the lush Tuscan countryside to be sculpted by a family friend who lives in a beautiful villa. Lucy visited there four years earlier and exchanged a kiss with an Italian boy with whom she hopes to become reacquainted.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Stealing Beauty?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Bernardo Bertolucci

Written by

Bernardo Bertolucci · Susan Minot

Liv Tyler

Liv Tyler

Lucy Harmon

Sinéad Cusack

Sinéad Cusack

Diana Grayson

Jeremy Irons

Jeremy Irons

Alex Parrish

Jason Flemyng

Jason Flemyng

Gregory

Joseph Fiennes

Joseph Fiennes

Christopher Fox

Carlo Cecchi

Carlo Cecchi

Carlo Lisca

Donal McCann

Donal McCann

Ian Grayson

Court is in session

Put Stealing Beauty on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.