Derrière la porte

Marcello Mastroianni has a rather cushy life to himself in a Morrocan jail. Working in the library,popping in and out as the fancy takes him, and enjoying conjugal visits from his daughter,(yes, its Cavani territory alright) Life becomes complicated when Tom Berenger falls in lust with the girl, much to the distaste of her father.

The brothel scene, early on in the movie probably remains the main talking point, but it is worth sticking with.The film is seedy and sleazy but strangely compulsive.

Cavani nearly pulls it off, but not quite.

What a waste of time this movie is.

Giorgi and Mastroianni play stepdaughter and stepfather who are doing each other because she feels guilty over something in her past and blah blah blah. Berenger pursues her relentlessly (God knows why), eventually wins her over but her stepdaddy seems to have a firm grip on her. Will she choose Berenger or Daddy dearest?

The fact that I stayed to find out is a testament to what a true fan goes through. I'm a huge Berenger fan and while he has definitely made some stinkers, none compare to this dud.

Due to a very sloppy VHS edition the dialogue got through very badly and some scenes very spoken entirely in french without subtitles so I have only a faint idea what went on there.

The film looks incredibly cheap and it's hard to imagine that the same DP here made Dario Argento's incredibly beautiful Suspiria. The film is incredibly slow moving, nothing much happens and it's also very tasteless in many respects.

My advice; Avoid

So a guy kills his wife, he is put in prison for it and his stepdaughter visits him. The stepdaughter is sexually involved with a man and her stepdad. The girl is no good and both men know it but both men "like her in that way" so both like to have sex with her. This weird, awful movie is done in the most boring way possible. It's a sick story to begin with but they could have at least created it in an interesting way that it would get more viewers.

I would have never even watched this movie but it came in the Midnight Movie Madness 50-Pack by Mill Creek and I always watch every movie in film packs - even if I have to fast-forward and skip through them to watch the ending. I had to do the fast-forwarding this with this mess of a film that hardly ever gets viewers or reviewers - and I know why now, it's not worth it.

1/10