L'amour dans la peau

The Italians are often accused of ripping off American films. While there is a lot truth to that, it often works the other way as well (i.e. the American "slasher" films owe a great debt to Mario Bava's "Bay of Blood" and any number of other Italian gialli). Sometimes though the similarities are just a strange kind of synchronicity. If it hadn't been made years earlier I would swear this film was a rip-off of TWO different Brooke Shields movies. Unfortunately, those two films are "The Blue Lagoon" and "Endless Love".

Like "Endless Love" this is a film about a young, naive girl (played by Ornella Muti, who started out as an Italian Brooke Shields but turned out to be a daring and talented actress)who meets an older drifter (played by Allesandro Oranio, later Muti's real-life husband). She is from a wealthy industrial family, however, and, of course, her father does not approve. So far, so "Endless Love", but then the pair runs off together and end up on an island where nothing really interesting happens--just like in "The Blue Lagoon".

Ornella Muti is pretty good, although she doesn't really have much of a character here truth be told. Oranio is not bad, but he is such an effeminate pretty-boy (who was probably cast against Muti because she was one of the few girls prettier than he was)that it's hard to understand why her father would have found him so threatening. The great Italian character actor Luigi Pistilli is also in the cast as a cop searching for the runaway couple.

I suspect this movie was made later than than the IMDb release date says. It has this ridiculous late 70's disco-era prologue, which was obviously slapped on by the American distributor but it's still seems strange that they would wait seven or eight years to release a film stateside. Moreover though, Ornella Muti looks quite a bit older than she did in films like "Oasis of Fear" and "Appassionata". I would guess this film was made closer to 1975. It's not as good as "Oasis of Fear" and not nearly as twisted and perverse as more famous Muti films like "Appasionata" or "The Last Woman". Still I think her fans might enjoy it, if for no other reason than simply to see how far this incredible actress has come.

A very young Ornella Muti plays a rich girl who falls for an older hippie boy. Her parents don't approve and try to stop her from seeing him so they run away to a villa (Her parents') by the sea. Later they are shipwrecked on a deserted island. The plot focuses on the efforts of the police to figure out where the girl is, which is set against the developing relationship between the two young people. As there is only brief nudity, the film really can't be considered an erotic movie. It's a coming-of-age story in the context of a struggle between "free love" and established, conservative values and power. It's also known as 'Sunshine on the skin'.

Lisa (Ornella Muti) meets a bunch of hippies and falls in love with guitar player Robert (Alessio Orano). Her father seems to think 'never trust a man with a flower tattoo' and asks Lisa to stop the relationship. The young lovers run away and end up shipwrecked on an island. But the police will search for them even there, and they are hunted mercilessly, getting into a desperate situation...

"Il sole nella pelle" seems a little dated with the hippies and the police who'd arrest them anytime, including a discussion at dime novel tragedy level about longing for freedom while it can't be achieved. But in the end, it's first of all a movie about foolish love, when a young girl is blind for the consequences, and it is a safe bet that still happens as often as back in 1971. Luigi Pistilli, one of the great character actors of the Italian cinema with an unforgettable face, plays the Chief of Police. 16 year old Ornella Muti took a bold step towards fame (or at least scandal) here with her first nude scene (her debut "The Most Beautiful Wife" did without such a scene, but is a more powerful movie).

On those days, Europeans still believed in the built-in good nature of Man. So, the boy is a healthy, sympathetic guitar player who won't force the little girl into sex unless she is willing to be initiated in this sole reason to exist (the goddess Reason was long gone, after the reason-shattering slaughters of WW1 and WW2, and god Hazard hadn't been put in her place yet). Anyway, only extreme examples as this (the film) will proof such empty theories... Also: much to the contrary of what "sheenafilm" states in his (her)review of Il Sole nella Pele, Ornella Mutti doesn't appear in the nude scene. The credits clearly say that the scene was taken with the sole participation of an over-eighteen model.

Summer Affair is kind of an Italian version of Romero and Juliet, intertwined with themes of free love, overbearing parents and a sun-baked island. The film is basically the story of a young girl who is enticed by a good looking, 'free spirit', much to the dismay of her father. The pair spends time together and eventually they end up on a boat. The boats gets out of control and the pair find themselves on a deserted island together. Meanwhile, the girl's father gets the police involved to try and 'save' his daughter. It has to be said that the film isn't all that interesting - not a great deal really happens and it tends to rely on the themes of the plot rather than the plot itself. The film does look nice, however, and director Giorgio Stegani does a good job of capturing the sun drenched locations and the picturesque island at the centre of the story. The film stars the beautiful Ornella Muti in one of her first roles, and while she doesn't get a great deal to do; she is always nice to look at. Starring alongside her is Alessio Orano and the two share a believable chemistry. The plot really is rather predictable and the film doesn't feature any surprises either. I wouldn't heavily recommend anyone goes out of their way for this film...but it is at least a decent watch.