La villa del venerdì

My review was written in April 1992 after watching the film on Columbia TriStar video cassette.

The erotic drama "Husbands and Lovers" is a well-mounted adaptation of the late Alberto Moravia's novel "The Friday Villa". Picture flopped in Italy last season but should be arousing for Stateside video voyeurs.

Veteran director Mauro Bolognini, whose best work includes classic 1950s collaborations with Pier Paolo Pasolini like "From A Roman Balcony", made an all-star miniseries for Italian TV from Moravia's "Time of Indifference" in 1987. Working in English this time, he emphasizes the material's sexual nature, featuring an overabundance of nude scenes with the two principal players.

Married couple Julian Sands and Joanna Pacula fancy themselves modern and free-thinking enough to have affairs and not feel guilty. He works as a screenwriter, and they rent a lavish villa for weekends (hence pic's original "The Friday Villa" moniker), but Pacula spends every Saturday and Sunday with her love (Tcheky Karyo).

Supposedly Sands doesn't care, but despite Pacula's obvious allure (she spends most of the film in the buff though occasionally donning Giorgio Armani costumes), he obsessively picks up prostitutes to meet his sexual needs. Matters come to a head when Sands discove that Karyo is abusing Pacula , beating her and involving her in kinky sadomasochistic rites. Punch line is that she likes it.

True to Moravia's thematics, the film ironically stresses that husband Sands is still deeply in love with his wife but has lost his desire for her. Instead of the expected violent climax (at one point Sands is poised to shoot Pacula) the film ends on a tentaive note of reconciliation.

Imported cast add class to what might have appeared a mere sex film in other hands. Topnotch technical support likewise differentiates this item from a horde of recent unrated sexploitation pics.

By the time the film was over, I was asking myself why anyone would want to make this movie? I only kept watching because Joanna Pacula kept getting naked, a poor excuse for watching any movie. The plot involves a woman who "loves" two men, her husband and her lover. The husband and wife have an understanding that they can sleep around, and an agreement to keep the other one informed about all the details. I suppose the writer and director can dream about such an arrangement, but a film on it is completely unworkable. Gee, the husband gets jealous; what a surprise. Gee, the lover is an S&M brute, and the wife loves/hates it; what a surprise. I say, we should just all sleep around and NOT tell our mates. And, of course, refrain from making a movie about such a common and mundane experience. It gets a rating above a "1" only because there have been worse movies made, and we need to reserve something for them.

Stefan (Julian Sands) is a successful screenwriter and has an open marriage with the delicious, sexy, and unfaithful Alina (Joanna Pacula) with an agreement: she stays with him from Sunday night until Friday night. The other two days, she stays with her lover Paolo (Tchéky Karyo). It is not clear, but it seems that his love for her is very platonic, and she fulfills her sexual needs with her lover. Or maybe he has perversion that pleasures him when she tells what she did with Paolo along the weekend. Paolo starts practicing kinky sex, Alina becomes masochist, and in some part of the story, Stefan does not accept this situation any longer.

"La villa del venerid", a.k.a. "Husbands and Lovers" (1991), is an erotic low budget romance in the style of "Nine ½ Weeks" (1986) and "Wild Orchid" (1989) very well produced, with wonderful landscapes, costumers from Armani, fancy locations and stylish soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. The plot is bold, but unfortunately the end is very moralist and disappointing. Joanna Pacula, one of the most gorgeous and sexy actresses of the cinema industry in the 80's, spends most of the film undressing her beautiful clothes and exposing her astonishing body. Maybe this is the best that this movie can offer to the viewer. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Vingança em Nome do Amor" ("Revenge in the Name of Love")

Note: On 01 July 2021, I saw this film again.

Most films principally about open marriages go into the lopsidedness of the relationship, that is, usually the marriage is more "open" for one party than the other. This movie is no different. This time its the husband who is jealous when his wife seems to be almost, or more in love with her lover than with him. In a slightly unusual twist, the husband is not to hypocritical of the relationship and admits that he does not desire her physically, but just wants her mind. He soon realizes that the mind and the body are one and that if he wants one, he must satisfy the other.

Like most European films, everything is very civil and refined, except for some kinky sex on the part of the wife's lover. Unlike most European films, I found myself absorbed almost continuously in the dialog. 10 - 12 nude scenes (nine or ten by the very beautiful Pacula) also helped a lot.

A very weird character study film, as so many European movies are. The cast all did a marvelous job with some, well, questionable material. The two lead actors, Julian Sands (Stefan), and Tcheky Karyo (Paolo), are quite creepy, albeit in different ways, and it leads one to wonder why Joanna Pacula's character (Alina) would be remotely attracted to either of them. There is no exposition about why she is the way she is. Perhaps damaged goods. But the main, if not only reason to watch this film is the stunning beauty of Joanna Pacula. She has a number of nude scenes, but even if she did not, she is absolute eye candy. The ending may be a little closer to Hollywood than to Rome, but that's OK.