L'immoralità

An 11 year-old girl befriends an injured man unaware that he is a paedophile killer.Her mother winds up having an affair with him which makes the girl jealous so she sets out to seduce him as well."L'Immoralita" by Massimo Pirri reminded me a little bit an infamous "Maladolescenza",but it was not as graphic.Still the sex scene between the girl and the killer may certainly upset some viewers,albeit the girl is clearly replaced by an older body-double.The story of "L'Immoralita" is morally dubious,however the acting is quite good and there is enough sleaze to satisfy any self-respecting smut peddler.I'd recommend this film for fans of Italian exploitation.7 out of 10.

There is only one reason why anyone would want to watch the tedious trudge through depravity that is "L'immoralita", and that's for perverts who want to see if a grown man really does get it on with an 11 year old girl during its run- time.

He does.

The filmmakers keep you in, er, suspense, for want of a better word, as there is only one scene in the movie that features any man-girl sex or child nudity. They must have known that was their only draw card. The movie's plot generates no reason to keep watching of its own. It's familiar giallo or poliziotteschi territory; miserable, upper-middle class people with the life sucked out of them wander around their sterile luxury. Enter a killer to a world so messed up no one cares what he's done, and you wonder who's going to kill who next, or at least you're supposed to.

I couldn't care less, and neither will you. It's only one scene; maybe you can find it on Youtube.

You have never seen a femme fatale that is only 12 but there are many things in this film one will never see in another film. There is no nudity below the waste though sex is implied and shown facing the male on top of an obvious stand in. You still do not see anything though Simona is often nude and clearly shown from the waste up.

The story is worthwhile because I am sure this kind of attraction happens all the time. The pedophile murderer does not hide his crime but this a such a dysfunctional family they accept him and Simona even wants to have his baby. You can also view this as a cautionary tale about marriages of convenience and/or money that really have no basis beyond that.

The attraction between the child and the killer is believable in every way but the ending is not at all predictable and is worth the price of admission. Shall I call it a happy ending? Pretty close.

This is the third Lisa Gastoni "mignotta-movie" (to borrow a phrase from Italian Euro-Cult authority Marco Giusti) I've watched – after THANK YOU AUNT (1968) and Fernando Di Leo's SEDUCTION (1973) – in which a middle-aged woman is seduced by a much younger man. Also, like SEDUCTION, here the man is, in turn, seduced by Gastoni's sexually precocious daughter. However, this fact is even more disturbing than the earlier film because the girl involved in this case is not yet 12-years old! There is even one rather graphic love scene between the girl and the man in the bathroom, which follows further nudity as she is seen coming out of the bath and drying out; that it does not feel reprehensible or exploitative is a tribute to the remarkably sensitive performance of Karin Trentephol (who, perhaps unsurprisingly, never made another film appearance) as the girl.

Lisa Gastoni (at 43) is still a sensual and attractive woman and has her hair dyed reddish blonde here, but this proved to be the last of several roles in a similar mode – to which I alluded above and of which I wouldn't mind catching Jerzy Kawalerowicz's MADDALENA (1971) and Giulio Petroni's LABBRE DI LURIDO BLU (1975); in fact, she went into a long period of retirement right after this one before re-emerging two years ago. A welcome surprise is the appearance of veteran Hollywood star Mel Ferrer (as Gastoni's wheelchair-bound cynic of a husband) who adds some much needed dignity to the proceedings; while he had been appearing sporadically in Italian films since 1954, interestingly, his role here does not feel like a mere "meal ticket" – unlike some of his other Italian film work of the period, namely THE ANTICHRIST (1974), THE VIOLENT PROFESSIONALS (1975), etc. Unfortunately, Howard Ross' one-dimensional characterization of the rapist/serial killer sticks out like a sore thumb alongside this caliber of acting and, in any event, the actions of the characters strain credibility on occasion – Ferrer is conspicuously absent most of the time (although he is inherently aware of all that goes on in his household and his eventual suicide arises more out of selfishness than resignation at his crippled condition or the immorality of his kinfolk), not to mention the fact that the investigating police officer decides to consummate his obsession with Gastoni while the manhunt for the rapist is in full swing.

Still the film is buoyed by Ennio Morricone's unusually subtle yet effortlessly haunting piano-led score and Massimo Pirri's firm directorial control that ensures the impact of several sequences on the viewer: the powerful opening scene in which Ross is holding his latest victim in his hands on his way to burying her; the lengthy, moving stairway confrontation between Gastoni and Trentephol; the confrontation between Ferrer and Gastoni in which the latter sadistically taunts the former by taking a hysterical spin on his wheelchair, and the twist ending which concludes the film on an admirably ironic note. While the central premise of a girl hiding and aiding a fugitive is reminiscent of WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND (1961) and THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (1973), the action set-piece around the mid-point – where a band of villagers break into Ferrer's house with the intention of smoking the rapist out – is straight out of Sam Peckinpah's STRAW DOGS (1971). An odd attribute of the Italian DVD I watched is that some over-exposed shots jarred alongside the more naturalistic lighting within these same scenes, but I'm not sure whether this is a fault of the DVD transfer or if they were filmed that way to begin with...

When I started watching this film I wasn't expecting too much. I thought I was going to hate it according to what I had read, but I decided to give it a try. It surprised me! It was a really good film with a very original story. Being an Italian low profile production it managed to be suspenseful and interesting.

The acting was good enough, especially the actress portraying the mother. And I loved Simona, the kid, and rooted for her all the time. By the way, the piano score was very nice and followed the story perfectly.

I don't want to spoil the movie because I think it really deserves to be watched. So if you like good drama with an original story (something hard to find these days) go for this one!