{"id":5821,"date":"2012-11-29T14:45:17","date_gmt":"2012-11-29T19:45:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5821"},"modified":"2012-11-29T14:45:17","modified_gmt":"2012-11-29T19:45:17","slug":"dvd-dark-side-of-love-the-fotografando-patrizia-1984","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5821","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Dark Side of Love, The \/ Fotografando Patrizia (1984)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to: <\/strong>Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>D<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Film: Very Good\/ DVD Transfer: Very Good\/ DVD Extras: \u00a0n\/a<\/p>\n

Label: One 7 Movies\/ Region: 0 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: September 11, 2012<\/p>\n

Genre: Erotica \/ Drama<\/p>\n

Synopsis: The death of their mother brings a Venetian brother & sister WAY closer than is socially, morally, and sexually appropriate.<\/p>\n

Special Features: (none)<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

Salvatore Samperi managed to sustain his career as an erotic filmmaker from the late sixties straight into the eighties, and yet of his 20 feature films, The Dark Side of Love<\/strong> \/ Fotografando Patrizia<\/strong> is apparently the sole title available in North America.<\/p>\n

Unlike One 7 Movies\u2019 other DVDs which seem to be sourced from lone surviving prints, Dark<\/strong> is actually taken from a decent film to video transfer, and sports both Italian and English dub tracks (although there are no English subtitles).<\/p>\n

This is important given the film was photographed by the great Dante Spinotti (L.A. Confidential<\/strong>, X-Men 3: The Last Stand<\/strong>), one of Italy\u2019s top cinematographers who\u2019s maintained an ongoing association with Michael Mann (Manhunter<\/strong>). Spinotti\u2019s camera glides carefully in and around the ornate mansion where Samperi\u2019s weird tale of burgeoning incest foments, plus there\u2019s the gorgeous Venetian locations.<\/p>\n

The core story involves Patrizia\u2019s (Monica Guerritore) return to the family mansion after her mother\u2019s sudden death, and initially diligent efforts to transform younger brother Emilio (Lorenzo Lena) from a porn-addicted, lazy hypochondriac into a proper young man with normal social skills.<\/p>\n

Her initial methodology is to push & prod him like a drill sergeant, dragging him out of bed, enforcing an exercise routine, eating proper food, and getting him less reliant on the neck and back braces he\u2019s worn since childhood due to their over-protective mother. With Patrizia back in his life 24-7, Emilio starts to see his sister as more hot than the neighbour\u2019s daughter, whereas Patrizia becomes aware of little Emilio\u2019s power to shape her current sexual desires \u2013 a process that begins with bedtime stories not of giant friendly bears and yummy pots of fuzzy bee honey, but Patrizia\u2019s first, third, and umpteenth tales of being ravaged and used as a blank canvas for phallic spray-painting.<\/p>\n

It also doesn\u2019t help that Patrizia\u2019s a fashion designer, constantly surrounded by pretty models at home and at work, nor that her bedroom activities are just a glass pane away from her brother\u2019s dark bedroom. On one level, Dark<\/strong> is a straight tease \u2013 Samperi acknowledges the siblings are very much hungry for each other through words and reaction shots instead of moments of graphic Wrongness \u2013 but in being such an elegant production (and boasting a score by Ring of Death<\/a><\/strong>\u2018s[M<\/a>] Fred Bongusto) we know their inevitable union will never be dramatized as a wet & sordid affair, as Bernardo Bertolucci eventually depicted in his emotionally tormented mother-son drama Luna<\/strong> (1979).<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s most effective element isn\u2019t the nudity or the wrongness of its subject matter, but the power struggle between brother & sister, as each seems to dare the other until jealousy interrupts and erodes any vestiges of a normal sibling relationship. Samperi fixates on their gazes and reactions, while Bongusto treats their longings with a strange amiability, almost approving of their intention to eventually consummate forbidden desires.<\/p>\n

The English dubbing and dialogue is predictably ridiculous, often making Patrizia\u2019s reactions to and sudden dismissal of any sibling conflict almost spastic, and Lena\u2019s acting skills are virtually nil (hence his limited dialogue), but the two actors are physically complimentary. Moreover, the film\u2019s art direction still remains stylish, which is quite a feat given the hair styles, d\u00e9cor, and colour schemes of most eighties productions look hideous today. (The only misstep is Patrizia\u2019s buzz cut and hair colour, which is weirdly evocative of the head shaving forced on heretics and WWII prostitutes. Perhaps Semperi intended the to infer Patrizia\u2019s heretical behaviour by contrasting her clipped hair against her modish wardrobe.)<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s Italian title is roughly translated as Photographing Patrizia, which makes more sense since it relates to Samperi\u2019s device of freezing a frame of Patrizia after a pivotal event, and pulling back to reveal a white table backlighting the emerging slide images.<\/p>\n

Samperi wasn\u2019t Italy\u2019s sole erotic filmmaker, but the classiness of this production (in visuals, sonics, and tempo) shouldn\u2019t be dismissed as merely de rigueur for the genre. When the siblings finally confirm their intentions, Samperi borrows an idea from Radley Metzger\u2019s Little Mother<\/strong> (1973) \u2013 separating the tactile actions of the two would-be lovers with a glass pane \u2013 and the specific colour scheme throughout the film, emphasizing warm reds, amber, and soft pastels \u2013 may well have influenced American erotic maestro Zalman King; there are definite similarities between Samperi\u2019s visual and editorial style, as well as the depiction of sexual power using montages of reactive eyes instead of graphic, physically abusive realism.<\/p>\n

Perhaps best-known for Malizia<\/strong> (1973) and Stormtroopers<\/strong> (1976), Samperi would durect La bonne<\/strong> (1986) and Malizia 2000<\/strong> (1991) before switching over to TV work. Actress Guerritore would enjoy a prolific film & TV career, whereas Lena would only appear in 3 more films, bowing out after a supporting role in Samperi\u2019s La Bonne<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2012 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews<\/a> <\/em>\/\u00a0D<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Return to: Home \/\u00a0Blu-ray, DVD, Film Reviews \/ D . Film: Very Good\/ DVD Transfer: Very Good\/ DVD Extras: \u00a0n\/a Label: One 7 Movies\/ Region: 0 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: September 11, 2012 Genre: Erotica \/ Drama Synopsis: The death of their mother brings a Venetian brother & sister WAY closer than is socially, morally, and sexually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[18],"tags":[1678,1390,1677,1676,1675],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1vT","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5821"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5821"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5825,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5821\/revisions\/5825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}