Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

yb777-1 I don't know why almost everyone writing about this movie talks about "Oedipus complex", "Freudian influence" and similar crap.Nobody pays attention to an enormous sacrifice done to her son's well being by the world-wide famous opera singer!The incest scene shows clearly that Caterina does it not because she feels sexual attraction to her son (to think so to my mind is highly stupid!), but because she wants to save her only child from his drug hell, to give him a bit of love that he missed all the time while she was busy with her singing career. She sacrifices everything - her singing, her career,her peace of mind for WHOM?! Her drug addicted son,nonentity, a piece of junk.Why? She left her egoistic husband in order to sing,but life prepared for her one more tragic obstacle.The end of the movie is a real catharsis - Jill Clayburgh's character acquires holiness in her sacrifice to her son.Finally she returns to her profession when Joe is saved and his real father comes to terms with his former family.A superb film by one of the greatest film-makers of our time.

Hayden Shepherd This movie circulates around that delicate taboo subject of incest in a way that is oddly unusual. I watched it for a research project and found it a little wobbly in some parts but an overall decent movie.If you are particular about incest, than this movie is NOT the movie for you.There are 3 dominating incestuous scenes in this film. They are not only deeply sensual but also have strong elements of pedophilia, mostly because Joe is so very very young. He is 15... and he CERTAINLY looks it. This element may disturb some people, because not only is he young but he is obviously very attracted to his mother, whom goes about feeding that. I personally found it distracting at points, curious as to how they handled filming this with the amount of awkward tension and desire Andrew Barry was required to show for the part... and him, being under-aged and what not.No full-incest actually ever occurs, but as someone else reviewed, the strength and insinuation of desire is all there, and often the emotional sensuality between these two characters is far more incestuous than their actual behavior towards each other.The surrounding story line is weak at times. We never returned to Joe's drug addiction issues, it vanishes from the story-line, and the last part of the movie which, in my opinion, should have been dedicated to resolving the Oedipal relationship between the mother and son was rudely interrupted by the "real" father, whom, just ended up annoying me and providing very little to the story line.It was as if the director wanted to tell the story of the Mother and the Son but didn't commit, for fear of total rejection by the public and threw different elements in which added no flavor to the story.I didn't feel as if there was a resolution. But still, would rate this movie an 8 because I found it a good example of Oedipus Complex between a young teenager and his mother, and helpful to my research project.

movedout There's some really heavy themes in this, most notably and controversially incest between the mother, an opera singer (the whole movie is quite operatic in the setting of Rome) and her son, a teenager slowly being sucked into a world of drugs as he slips away from his mother. It doesn't cross the line all the way, instead hovers back and forth between a loss they've shared and a promise of being together at any means, albeit not in the conventional sense.Lovely, epic music lacquers the scenery and intensity between the parent, who finds it a duty to be closer to the son thats torn between guilt and anger. Note though, that the physical incest is not as strong as the theme of emotional incest, which is usually the more pervasive of the two. It's main focus seems to be the mending of a mother-son relationship when both mother and son are wrecks to begin with. This film is quite the rarity. I bought my DVD at a garage sale. Might be Italian though, the wordings' are a bit wrecked on mine, but a splendid cover art, it's why I even noticed it underneath a clutter.It's quite a heavy subject matter to tackle, plenty for the psychoanalytical of us to ponder over. Quite typical of Bertolucci to polarise his viewers. I would agree that the film is a task especially its beginning but its fruitful with much symmetry composing the parent/child relationship regarding the inexplicable quandaries of love and sexuality. Oedipal complexities are never fully explored physically thankfully, it doesn't go the distance like "Spanking the Monkey" did but what isn't shown is much more primal and imperative than what is shown. I've read many stinging criticisms of the film and its incomparable director of trying to shock his way through the auds. But I honestly am too blind or refractory for lack of a better word to subscribe to that.Bertolucci has a fond place in my heart. As simple as this sounds, he makes films that are memorable and have something to tell us - usually about politics and human sexuality. This film is one of his earlier works and its absolutely gorgeous. Speaking of gorgeous, Jill Clayburgh shows why she's so unsung, in this she plays a woman who's so respected to everyone but yet in shambles inside. I would love to see her in more and thank god I now have something to supplant her as Ally Mcbeal's mom.

Philip Van der Veken I always try to see as many European movies as possible. That has nothing to do with the fact that I'm a European myself. It's because I want to keep an open mind on as many kinds of movies as possible. I certainly do not dislike Hollywood movies, but I find the Asian and European movies sometimes more original and stylish. Especially the Italians seem to have a feeling for creating a beautiful, stylish and colorful movie, so when I got the chance to see "La Luna", a movie directed by Bernardo Bertolucci I didn't have to think twice..."La Luna" tells the story of the recently widowed American opera diva Caterina Silveri. She takes her teenage son Joe, who believes that it was his father who died, while in reality it was his stepfather, with her on a long singing tour to Italy. But she is so absorbed by her hectic work schedule that she doesn't pay much attention to him. Soon she discovers that her troubled and lonely son has become a heroin addict and in her attempts to get him of the drugs, they start an incestuous relationship. Still, these problems may also result in a meeting between Joe and his real father, whose existence she has always kept a secret, but now reveals in a desperate attempt to make her son act normal again.I understand that many people will raise an eyebrow after reading this resume, but I guess that's exactly what I mean about keeping an open mind towards as many movies as possible. I'm sure you'll never see such a movie in Hollywood, but that doesn't mean it can't be any good, does it? And yes, perhaps the subject will not appeal to many people, but in my opinion it still is worth giving a try.I've read in other reviews that this may well be the best movie Bertolucci has ever made, better than "The Last Emperor" and "Little Buddah", his more famous movies. I really can't tell you whether they are right or not, because I haven't seen those movies yet, but what I can say is that this is a good movie. The acting and the photography make this movie look better than average and make the disturbing subject bearable to watch. That's why I give this movie a 7/10. It's probably not to everybody's taste, but it certainly isn't bad.