Luna

On tour in Italy after losing her husband, American opera star Caterina Silveri is trying to keep life steady for her teenage son Joe. When she discovers he is addicted to heroin, she reacts in an extreme and forbidden way, drawing him into an intimate relationship meant to wean him off drugs and to fill the hole left by grief. The film watches their daily rhythm, the strain of secrecy, and how public performances contrast with private unraveling. Secondary figures, a neighbor, a former colleague, and local voices add pressure and perspective. Luna refuses tidy answers, showing care, guilt, desire, and responsibility tangled without offering a clear moral verdict. Her concerts underscore the gap between public success and private despair.

Luna was released in 1979, directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, with screenplay contributions from Giuseppe Bertolucci and Franco Arcalli. Jill Clayburgh headlines, supported by Matthew Barry, Veronica Lazăr, Renato Salvatori, and Fred Gwynne. Filming took place across Italian locations and studios.

Because it centers on an incestuous mother-son relationship, Luna provoked controversy on release and in later discussions. Critics and audiences argued about taste, censorship, and artistic limits. The film left a mark on debates about how far art can go when treating addiction, sexuality, and parental grief, and later scholarship.

Critical reaction was mixed, reflected by a modest audience rating around 6.3/10. Reviewers praised Clayburgh's performance and the film's uneasy mood, while many objected to its subject matter. Major themes include addiction, grief, maternal longing, and the collapse of boundaries between care and control. Some noted Bertolucci's style and choices.

Luna had a limited commercial reach beyond festival play and did not become a mainstream box office success. Its challenging subject and mixed reception kept it from wide popular uptake, though it has surfaced in retrospectives of Bertolucci's work elsewhere.