La casa de las palomas

Slow story about love , desire , religion and death . This mythical filmmaker made this his 2º film titled ¨House of the doves¨ , he , subsequently , directed "La Campana del Infierno" (The Bell Of Hell) in which he died during its shooting , as he fell from the bell tower at church of San Martín , Noya . It concerns about the widow Alexandra (Lucia Bosé) and her 17-year-old schoolgirl daughter Sandra (Ornella Muti) live together in a luxurious villa in Córdoba , Spain . When her cousin Fernando (Glen Lee) shows up their love affair is rekindled . Long time ago , they had a romance , but now Fernando seduces Ana and both of whom get together at a brothel of his friend Mari Lu (Carmen De Lirio) . Then , Alexandra finds that the playboy is being paid to be the companion of a rich older lady (Caterina Boratto) . After that , Alejandra to be aware of their illicit relationship and things go wrong .

Based on a script by Leonardo Martin , Miguel Rubio and Giovanni Simonelli , it deals with a disturbing as well as psychological romance when appears a gigoló and falls for a mother and her daughter . Guerin in a penetrating style makes a deliberate , but very slow , and sometimes bright filmmaking , as he invite us into an active participation of a triangular game in which at the ending takes place an unexpected denouement . A few elements well developed he manages to create a strange atmosphere , a mixture among magical dreamlike scene , and , mysterious doves , and , of course , without giving up a certain amount of cruelty and eroticism ; adding touches morbid and abstract at its final . It contains scabrous elements , including brief lesbianism scenes and some images about suicide and erotic love scenes were eliminated by censorship . It was strongly censored and it unbalanced this peculiar flick about a mummy and daughter who fall for the same man , a selfish playboy . ¨House of the doves¨ pays tribute to two prestigious films : ¨Death of a cyclist¨ and ¨The Birds¨ by Alfred Hitchcock , taking parts here and there . Director Guerin carries out a particular as well as pretentious filmization including slow-moving shots , blurry images attempting to create special dramatic effects , repeated frames and a final surrealist dream , full of erotic symbolism .¨The house of the doves¨ benefits from a colorful cinematography by Fernando Arribas , including nice Córdoba locations . In addition , a functional and evocative musical score by Francesco Di Mai who composes by piano.

This very hard to find Spanish/Italian co-production motion picture was regularly directed by Claudio Guerin , realizing a personal staging . He had previously directed shorts , documentaries , TV series episodes such as : ¨Si Las Piedras Hablaran¨ , ¨Conozca España¨ , ¨Noche En Los Jardines De España¨ , ¨A Través Del Flamenco¨, and made TV plays as ¨Hamlet¨ and ¨Ricardo III¨ . His film debut was ¨Los Desafíos¨ produced by Elias Querejeta . However his sad and mysterious death cut his promising career . As he died in an accident , during the filming of his third movie , the mythical film "La Campana del Infierno" (The Bell Of Hell) , it is a psychological thriller more than a Spanish Fantaterror film . This near-legendary Euro-Cult ítem was brilliantly directed by Claudio Guerin , resulted to be a damned picture , specially when turned out to be his untimely swan song since he died by mysteriously fall or jumped to his death from the central bell tower constructed for the movie and being eventually completed by distinguished fellow Juan Antonio Bardem . His death happened in Noya church , there had been built a second bell tower attached to a passage of real wood . Preparing a complicated plan, Guerin wanted to jump from the catwalk to a cantilever of the church, but lost his balance and fell into the void from twenty meters high ; died before reaching the hospital . Distinguished director Juan Antonio Bardem completed filming the last sequence about 7 minutes .

Fans of Claudio Guerin Hill's sublimely weird horror classic The Bell of Hell would do well to realise that this, his first feature film, is nothing like it. The House of Doves is a soppy romantic melodrama, drowning in soft-focus photography and syrupy music. It also boasts continuity so atrocious that Lucia Bose seems to wear three separate outfits in the course of one conversation.

The lovely Lucia plays a glamorous widow, living with her nymphet daughter (Ornella Muti) in a remote corner of southern Spain. When an old flame (Glen Lee) drops by in his jazzy red sports car, the couple resume their affair - until she finds out he's been the paid gigolo of a much older woman (Caterina Boratto). Understandably miffed, Lucia shows him the door. He gets revenge by seducing the daughter...

The film does improve remarkably at this point. The randy rotter lures the innocent girl to the mysterious 'House of Doves' - a place of assignation done up like a plush 19th century brothel! All over the house, doves flutter about and flap their wings in slow-motion - a 'poetic' way to illustrate Muti's first orgasm. Bose, we start to suspect, is no stranger to this house. It all gets progressively more twisted, as pseudo-Romantic slop gives way to Surrealist psychodrama.

Lucia Bose, fortunately, is an actress we watch no matter what - like Greta Garbo or Charlotte Rampling - and her magnetism does help us overlook the script's absurdity. (Why, for example, is the 'House of Doves' not encrusted with droppings?) The best I can say for Muti is that she seems to have begun her career very much as she meant to go on. No acting, but lots of energetically faked rumpy-pumpy. At least both ladies look gorgeous, thanks to lyrical camerawork by Fernando Arribas.

An arty but half-baked effort, The House of Doves is no threat to Lolita or Pretty Baby in the 'sexy schoolgirl' stakes. Very few people will enjoy this film. Fewer still, I suspect, will admit it.

This was the first, and only other, film of Spanish director Claudio Guerin Hill who directed the principal photography of the Euro-cult favorite "A Bell from Hell" before tragically (and ironically) falling to his death from the bell tower on the final days of shooting. This movie is disappointing compared to the excellent "A Bell from Hell", but that's hardly surprising. It also has suffered, both then and now, from the inappropriate alternate title "The Violation of Laura", which makes it sound far sleazier than it is. There is no "violation" here except in the strictly emotional (and perhaps statutory) sense. This is really a coming-of-age story about a young girl (Ornela Muti) who has a sexual affair with the spurned gigolo lover of her beautiful mother (Lucia Bose) and eventually suffers a nervous breakdown. A much more appropriate title of for this film is the original Spanish title "House of the Doves", which comes from a strange dove-invested hotel/brothel where the girl and her lover rendezvous.

Lucia Bose and Ornella Muti are both very appealing, especially given their respective overripe and underripe ages (Muti was kind of Italian Brooke Shields at this time but with talent, while Bose had been Miss Italy way back in 1948!) This is not really an exploitative mother-daughter fantasy, however--it's arty and tame (the version I saw didn't even have any nudity), and the male at the center is completely unlikeable and unsympathetic. If you want to see a more exploitative version of this same plot I would recommend "La Seduccion" (which Muti was initially cast in several years later, but was replaced by Jenny Tamburi). I wouldn't really compare this to "Pretty Baby" (other than Muti's aforementioned resemblance to Brooke Shields) which is critically regarded but is also frankly kind of a creepy film. This movie is simply non-exploitative in any way, which isn't a bad thing, especially when it's a movie about the sexual coming-of-age of a fifteen-year-old girl (and one who was played by an actress of about the same age). I'd recommend this, but make sure you see it for the right reasons.

The only other film directed by Claudio Guerin Hill I'd watched previously had been the near-legendary Euro-Cult item, A BELL FROM HELL (1973), which also turned out to be his untimely swan song since he died – by mysteriously tumbling down to the ground from the titular bell-tower! – during production (the filming was eventually completed by distinguished fellow Spaniard Juan Antonio Bardem).

Anyway, to get back to the film at hand: from the synopsis, I was expecting a far sleazier film because, as it turns out, the erotic content is really played down here – though 17-year old Ornella Muti already sports her stunning good looks. I decided to check this out immediately after watching Lucia Bose' - in her prime – in Antonioni's STORY OF A LOVE AFFAIR (1950); she had appeared in another contemporaneous film revolving around a similar but far more intriguing three-way romance (where Ewa Aulin had been her daughter) in the semi-giallo THE DOUBLE (1971); even in her early forties, Bose' (who also happens to be the real-life mother of popular singer/actor Miguel) looks great and one believes that she would make the heads of much younger men spin.

Unfortunately for the viewer, the young man in question (Glen Lee) is a bit of a bore and one is hardly surprised when looking at his filmography to find that it only contains a handful of titles. Adding to that, the relationship between Bose' and the young man is left unclear: are they related or not? Could she be his stepmother…that would, of course, imply that both his relationships – first with Bose' and later on with her daughter – are incestuous?

This obscure film is watchable enough in itself and is made more palatable by the typical Spanish pre-occupation with religion, the occasional stylistic quirk from the director (notably a flashback occurring in the middle of a scene filmed in slow-motion) and a decent score by Francesco De Masi. Besides, the titular location – the trysting place for the young lovers, owned by a prostitute of whom he had been a regular client! – provides some much-needed atmosphere. In a clear nod to Hitchcock, the birds even attack Muti towards the end but, being the precocious girl she is, eventually vents her jealous fury on our feathered friends not as a result of their behavior towards her but because, in a dream sequence which comes out of nowhere, she had equated their number with her lover's previous conquests!

In the end, however, although the subject matter is somewhat similar, the film is nowhere near as disturbing as Massimo Pirri's L'IMMORALITA' (1978) – which, incidentally, I watched earlier in the year – and this, as I said earlier, is a direct result of its sleaze factor not having been fully realized!

I'm pretty certain that John Woo did not get his flying doves idea from this movie, no matter what the title here suggest. I guess there is a deeper meaning to the doves (beautiful but caged maybe?) to the overall story. Having said that, the main male character could have done with a bit more charisma. The fact every other girl is falling for his looks is almost ridiculous considering how empty he seems inside.

Then again, some may say that is jealousy speaking and that women (girls in some case here, especially when we talk about Ornella Mutti) like to help men - especially those who seem vulnerable yet are hot (look fine). Not what I am saying mind you, you could argue the movie is making a bit of point in that direction. The way it starts with how he is put on a pedestal ... he couldn't have lived up to it ... again charsma and all that. So while there is some drama and the movie has its merits (not so much in the nudity department if that is what floats your boat), there have been better "relationship" movies