El diablo en el cuerpo

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon.)

I watched "the original X-rated theatrical version" (gee, lucky me) and I can tell you Maruschka Detmers has headlights that point very sharply in the direction they want to go. She is also very pretty, although I'm not sure she is prettier than her co-star, Federico Pitzalis. Clearly, she is taller. Yes, this is a very sexy movie, which some might say is its raison d'etre, but that's really beside the point. What matters here is school-boy wish fulfillment, a little self-indulgence by Director Marco Bellocchio.

Well, why not? It isn't often that the boy gets the beautiful woman, especially when in competition with his suave father, a handsome and distinguished psychiatrist, and her fiancé, a well-heeled and attractive terrorist. I mean, this could happen, couldn't it?

I didn't see the original French version of 1946, in which the terrorist was a soldier in World War I. I understand it was better. I'm willing to bet that Bellocchio saw it and had the sort of relationship with it that a later generation had with Star Wars, e.g., and just had to relive the fantasy.

Nonetheless, and having said all that, this is not a bad movie. I'm not sure who is supposed to be the "devil in the flesh," but Maruschka is worth the price of the ticket and then some.

This 1986 Italian-French remake of the 1946 film of the same name turns up the heat early, and doesn't let us come up for air. The story is about a high-school student (Federico Pitzalis) who can't keep his eyes off the mysteriously beautiful young woman (played by Dutch phenom Maruschka Detmers) who lives next door to the school. One day, he follows her, and his persistence pays off. There's only one problem: She's engaged to a sketchy character (Riccardo De Torrebruna) who may or may not have committed a heinous crime, and if he repents, will probably be let off with a slap on the wrist. Also, the young woman is a little "funny in the head", and this is corroborated when we discover she has been seeing the boy's father, who is a psychiatrist. Giulia's emotional instability is only equalled by her prodigious sexual desires. Hot, hot, hot, from the word go, with handsome leads and a bombshell performance from Detmers, who plays us like a yo-yo (as she does the boy) from scene to scene, with enough suspense to keep us guessing right up until--and even after--the end. Available in R and X (!) rated versions.

This film was at times very difficult to follow. Every time it got interesting it would jump to another scene. I'm not sure if it was my perception because the translation may have been a little flawed. Even though I was watching sub titles I did think that Maruschka Detmers was terrific. She is also very beautiful and if anything else it is worth seeing this film just for that one famous scene. It's pretty cool to watch a dramatic film and have a scene like that. Overall it was a decent movie.

The movie was promoted as a really sensual love story. There is more about it. If you know the history of Italy in the 80's, Red Brigades, left wing revolutionaries students or are interested to learn more, it's a good start. A big part of contemporary western Europe history. Italy and France really entered the capitalistic word in the 80's, and of course there was a left wing reaction of people for who America and the European Union capitalistic project was not the role model to follow. Every weeks, there were political murder, terrorist attacks and kidnappings. If you had some hot sex scenes and beautiful Marushka Detmers, you have a pretty good and interesting movie.

Enjoy!

Well-worth seeing! Marco Bellocchio succeeds in analysing the rot and opportunism affecting a typical bourgeois family in the late 80s. Long gone is the optimism of the revolutionary 60s and 70s. But underneath all the muck there still is enough life and spontaneity there waiting to break through not only sexually but hopefully politically too. A very authentic, not at all dogmatic film, one which succeeds in showing the erotic side of love without falling into the trap of cheapness or boredom.