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Stealing Beauty

1996 film by Bernardo Bertolucci

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ749191 ↗
Source-derived summary

Stealing Beauty (French: Beauté volée, lit. 'Stolen Beauty'; Italian: Io ballo da sola, lit. 'I Dance Alone') is a 1996 coming-of-age drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci and starring Jeremy Irons, Liv Tyler, Sinéad Cusack, Jean Marais, Donal McCann, D. W. Moffett, Stefania Sandrelli and Rachel Weisz. Written by Bertolucci and Susan Minot, the film is about a 19-year-old American girl who travels to a lush Tuscan villa near Siena to stay with family friends of her poet mother, who recently died. It is an international co-production of France, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Stealing Beauty was released in Italy in March 1996, and was officially selected for the 1996 Cannes Film Festival in May. It was released in the United States on 14 June 1996.

The film was made entirely in the Tuscany region of Italy during the summer of 1995. The main location for filming was the estate of Castello di Brolio, and a small villa on the property.

Plot

Following the suicide of her mother, famous poet Sara Harmon, 19-year-old American Lucy arrives at the Tuscan villa of her mother's friends, Ian and Diana Grayson. Other guests include a New York art gallery owner, an Italian advice columnist and a dying English playwright, Alex Parrish. Diana's son Christopher is due to return from a trip with Niccolò Donati, who lives in a nearby villa.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Stealing Beauty” as 1996 film by Bernardo Bertolucci. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Stealing, Beauty and film.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1996, 1995—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1996-03-29, 1996-05-16, 1996-08-23, 1996-09-26—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Stealing, Beauty and film providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Stealing Beauty”, the useful work is to connect “1996 film by Bernardo Bertolucci” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q749191. The Library of Congress control number is n96038370. 1 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 4 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1996 and 1995.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Stealing Beauty”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Stealing Beauty primary sources, Stealing Beauty archive and Stealing research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Stealing Beauty”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Stealing Beauty” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.