Scandalosa Gilda (1985)

Director:

Gabriele Lavia

Writers:

Riccardo Ghione (writer)
Gabriele Lavia (writer)

Release Date:

3 December 1986 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Erotica

Cast

Monica Guerritore
Gabriele Lavia
Pina Cei
Jasmine Maimone
Dario Mazzoli
Sacha Darwin
Italo Gasperini

Also Known As:

Scandalous Gilda

MPAA:

Rated R for strong depiction of a perverse sexual relationship.

Runtime:

Brazil:95 min | France:94 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color

Certification:

Finland:K-18 | France:-16 | UK:18 | USA:R | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Company:

Dania Film

Don't waste your time

After a wealthy socialite (Monica Guerritori) catches her husband in bed with another woman, she decides to embark on an erotic road-trip of her own. Unfortunately, this mostly involves a single affair with an annoying opera-singing cartoonist. He woos her with an animated pornographic sequence (which is not remotely erotic but might be the best part of the film). She goes to bed with him, but won't tell him her name or let him tell her his. If you think this movie is kind of trying to ape "Last Tango in Paris", you're probably right because later they also do the infamous "butter scene", but with spit instead of butter. (Okay it's probably not a very effective lubricant, but the movie seems to have some kind of bizarre "saliva fetish" because earlier the heroine had also spit on her husband and his lover when she found them together). They also have a sex in a public toilet and several other equally romantic places. The man keeps calling the heroine a "whore" and throwing money at her, while she apparently tries to prove him right by flagging down a horny trucker and doing the guy right in front of him.

This movie is probably too perverse to be very erotic. But it's not realistic enough for the perversity to be very effective. These cartoonish characters are simply not fleshed-out enough to be having this kind of "dark night of the soul" (which is a general problem with all these "Last Tango" knock-offs). The scene with the trucker, for instance, could have had a real perverse kick if there was any believable passion between the two lovers (and if they hadn't just met hours before). And the pathetic guy makes the whole thing completely risible by actually offering the TRUCKER money so he can watch the action. Even worse, this movie somehow manages to render the gorgeous Guerretori unattractive. She has a bad hair-do, bad make-up, and is dubbed in the English version by a woman who sounds about twenty years older than the actress was at the time. OK that last thing wasn't the Italian filmmakers fault I guess, but having her stay dressed during all her sex scenes doesn't exactly add to the visual appeal of the movie either.

I originally thought this movie was a Tinto Brass effort, but it was actually the the directorial debut of lead actor Gabriele Lavia. I would actually recommend pretty much any Brass movie over this since it's more boring and pretentious than even his worst stuff. If you want to see a good movie with Guerritori though, check out "The Venetian Lady" made the same year where she played Laura Antonelli's maid and the two of them have a very memorable upstairs/downstairs sex romp with a visiting nobleman and his servant. Or way back when she was an adolescent, she made it with the kid from "Oliver" in the bizarre but memorable "Love Under the Elms". Don't waste your time with this--I've wasted too much time as it is here. . .