'Luna' waxes and wanes

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during which she decides she no longer wants to sing. She is comforted in the shower by her best friend and, we suspect, a lesbian.

In another scene, a heavily drugged Joe is sexually approached by an older man in a cafe. This takes on double significance, since Joe is not only groping for his sexual identity but searching for his father as well.

Bertolucci purposely cuts both Caterina's shower and the cafe scene abruptly, so we are left wondering whether anything of a sexual nature transpired. Although the director intended this ambiguity, it is disconcerting to the Baudience.

What unsettled me most about "Luna" was that I was left unmoved by the agonies of the characters and the baring of their rawest emotions.

Blame cannot rest with the acting, which is extraordinary. Miss Clayburgh, whose forte has previously been light, warm and endearing roles, here displays noteworthy depth and range.

Barry evokes the melancholy of an adolescent who is anxious for his mother's love and attention, yet must settle for being her pawn.

The film too frequently proceeds at the languid pace of life. Scenes wander on needlessly, with lengthy shots of Caterina and Joe drifting through streets, rooms, Italian piazzas and up flights of stairs.

Bertolucci makes fascinating use of lights, shades and images, with frequent shots of a full white moon. Joe confuses the face of the moon with the face of his mother from an important submerged memory. Luna, or the moon, be-

comes a metaphor; it has two faces and colors, just as every character in "Luna" has two faces and every situation two aspects.

Despite its problems, "Luna" cannot be lightly dismissed. It is a courageous, intense work by an eminent director ("Last Tango in Paris," "1900") who has never shunned controversy.

In "Luna," Bertolucci dares to illuminate the darkest recesses of behavior and expose the frightening shades of sexuality, and he partially succeeds.

(Rated Adult for incest, drugs, language and intensity.