Corpo d'amore (1972)

User Rating:

4.0/10   

Director:

Fabio Carpi

Writer:

Luigi Malerba (writer)

Cast

Lino Capolicchio
Vittorio Fanfoni
Mimsy Farmer
Gianni Pulone
Giovanni Rosellini
François Simon

Also Known As:

Body of Love (International: English title)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Capricorno

Words and bodies

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is a very unusual and highly artistic movie. Those who made it knew exactly what they wanted – and they have a great command of their respective crafts.

Short synopsis

A father and a son meet for a holiday on a beach. The father is 62 and a researcher of insect life, the son is 15 and at a boarding school. They don't have to say much to each other and both agree to „stop the experiment". But then they come across the inert body of a unconscious young woman. They carry her to their beach house. She regains consciousness and it turns out that she speaks a language they do not understand. They treat her as their property, take her to the beach, to the small restaurant nearby and on boat trips. The woman's presence enables father and son to come to terms. One day she disappears and they find her together with her hunky diver boyfriend who speaks her language as well as theirs. Father and son don't like this intrusion into their harmonious triangle and they start fiddling with the hunk's oxygen tanks ...

The control of image, color and sound in this film is truly awesome. The scenery is strictly confined to the beach, the beach house and the small restaurant (corpo d'amore was filmed by one of the greatest cinematographers ever, Vittorio Storaro). It all appears in beautiful, warm colors. The use of music is carefully chosen and inserted (Bach's Goldberg variations among others), occasionally complemented by the sound of the waves. Language plays an important role and is often used as a poetic voice-over, not unlike in some films of Alain Resnais. Father and son are experienced soliloquists and language is for them mainly an instrument for introspection and less communication.

As one might have guessed by now, this movie is not for feminists. The woman is all body – in an idealised kind of way, sexuality is kept tightly under the surface. For a long time I was not sure if she was meant to be a figment of father's and son's imagination, the missing link between soliloquists. Mimsy Farmer is perfect in this role. She seems to have fallen out of the skies and her beauty has something surreal. Not bad for a chick who is usually known for biker and horror flicks, eh?