Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Rexanne It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Eric Norton The first half of this film is a brilliant story about a teenage boy hopelessly lost in a world not of his own making. Torn from familiar surroundings with only his distant mother for support, he turns to drugs to find some kind of "comfort" in his life. However, the second half quickly delves into a bizarre relationship of incest between the boy and his mother. Granted, it was originally to cure him of his drug habit, but she soon begins to like it, and that's when all hell seems to break loose. My rating of 7 stars is simply because the first half was so incredibly wonderful (great plot, good acting, gorgeous Italian scenery). The second half isn't without its charms, too, and the back-and-forth "I love you, I hate you" relationship between the mother and son works well... IF you can overlook the fact that it is, indeed, a mother and son.

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.

andrabem "La Luna is a wonderful film - Caterina (Jill Clayburgh) goes with her son Joe (Matthew Berry) to Italy after the death of her husband/Joe's "father". In Italy they stand by themselves and Joe, a lonely boy, is still grieving his "father"'s death. This is not apparent because Joe looks like a normal teenager. Parties, girlfriend and so on. One day during Joe's birthday party, Caterina discovers that her son is on heroine. She doesn't know what to do. She gets to know that Joe, her son, feels very lonely and she tries to deepen their relationship. It is not easy. Joe is sensitive and very intelligent. It wouldn't do to just pat his head, tell him to stop with the nonsense and be a good boy - there's no use for the repressive approach. And their relationship gets very close - psychologically and sexually speaking. It's amazing. A special love relationship will grow between mother and son. I don't believe that a film like "La Luna" could be made in the USA. The USA are too puritan for this kind of thing.There's a beautiful interview of Bertolucci featured in the bonus in which he comments on how his own remembrances influenced the film - he was a baby and his mother was cycling on the road one night. She was young and beautiful and he remembers seeing her face and then the moon in a way that both seemed to blend together for some moments. The bonus shows us Bertolucci being interviewed in different phases of his life. He is very intelligent and human and has really something to say."La Luna" is a very beautiful film that can touch a delicate subject with tenderness and poetry. Jill Clayburgh and Matthew Barry are outstanding as mother and son and I must confess that during the film I wished Jill Clayburgh were my mother. Oh Yes! I didn't like the ending so much, but I think that maybe Bertolucci wanted an operatic ending to "La Luna", it is a matter of taste, anyway.

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.