SOURCE: Bertolucci, Bernardo, and Bruce Sklarew. “Returning to My Low-Budget Roots: An Interview with Bernardo Bertolucci.” Cineaste 24, no. 4 (fall 1999): 16.

In the following interview, Bertolucci discusses the themes of Besieged, how the film was made, and his opinions of working in the television medium.

Bernardo Bertolucci's latest film, Besieged, tells a story of attraction and sacrifice as it gradually unfolds between Shandurai (Thandie Newton), a young African woman studying medicine in Rome, and Jason Kinsky (David Thewlis), an English pianist and composer. Kinsky lives in the center of Rome in an old inherited house adjacent to the Spanish Steps. Bertolucci's camera flirts with this landmark, catching glimpses of it from time to time, much like the developing intimacy between Shandurai and Kinsky, through secret glances and shy approaches. The faded elegance of Kinsky's enormous house—with its creaky dumbwaiter, imposing spiral staircase and rooms filled with paintings, sculptures, and...