Cover of The Sheltering Sky
We finally saw The Sheltering Sky, a film based on a novel by writer/composer Paul Bowles. The story is set in Saharan Africa after the war.
The local-spouse really enjoyed it. I found the actors during the first half annoying and unlikable. And I'm not sure I was ever going to be ready for the full frontal nudity of John Malkovich, of all people. But as characters dropped off the journey, the story became more vivid and compelling. The cinematography was also rich and colorful.
As I generally like African music of all sorts (except as promoted by Paul Simon), I'll track down a CD of the soundtrack since lala only has clips. However, I had to check if any of the orchestral pieces were by Paul Bowles himself. Apparently not.
About composer (and former Yellow Magic Orchestra member) Ryuichi Sakamoto from Wikipedia:
He is also known as a critic of copyright law, arguing that it is antiquated in the information age.
Finally, about the novel:
The story focuses on the couple as they try to cope with both the foreign environment and each other. Neurotic and inclined to over-think seemingly trivial events, they become distanced, bifurcated by a hostile landscape brimming with the new and the inexperienced. They stand as lone figures on a sheet of sun-draped earth, links severed by the coarse wind, irrecoverably isolated with only the deepening darkness of the desert lying ahead of them.
