Gianni Barcelloni's 1980 tale of blackmail and deception stars the elegant and beautiful Stefania Sandrelli (The Conformist & 1900). Sandrelli portrays Viola, a rich socialite who adopts a child ("Desideria" portrayed by Lara Wendal) with an eating disorder. Desideria has many emotional issues growing up and becomes extremely withdrawn because of her weight, and to make matters worse she's subjected to her adoptive mothers open and blatant sexual escapades. One night she awakens to another one of her mother's sexual encounters. Realizing she can't sleep, she decides to get a midnight snack. Enroute to the kitchen she accidentally walks in on her mother and her boyfriend (Klaus Lowitsch) having sex on the living room floor. This outrages Viola who confronts her in the kitchen and humiliates her by shoving a cake in her face. So traumatized by the event Desideria attempts suicide. Viola becomes overwhelmed with guilt and encourages her daughter to lose weight. Desideria eventually sheds the weight (via therapy) and blossoms into a very beautiful young lady. Only the viewer discovers just how disturbed she really is when she starts to resemble her adoptive mothers personality. Like exploiting sex as a means of acquiring to maintain the materialistic life style she's accustomed to.
Years pass only Desideria still suffers from the emotional issues that would plague someone who wonders why she was let go for adoption. That, coupled with her mothers outrages behavior in the past that still haunts her in the present. Even the family maid tries to take advantage of Desideria's emotional instability by forcing a sexual encounter with her (at the request of her mother's boyfriend) while shopping. Desideria decides she's had enough and fights back through blackmailing her mother's boyfriend, who eventually pays her off. She uses the money she acquires and confronts the maid who directs her to a guy she knows that will get rid of her mother's boyfriend (for a price) via murder for hire. The alleged hit-man complicates matters by falling in love with Viola. But still wanting to help Desideria with her problem he hires another hit-man to finish the job. What follows is even more lies on top of more blackmail as Desideria becomes the victim of a twisted and tangled web of deception, resulting in a powerful ending. Not the best transfer to DVD but still a very watchable movie as any film would be that features Italian film star Stefania Sandrelli. As usual, Sandrelli manages to steal every scene she's in. Whats unfortunate here is, she's not nearly in it enough.
olofpalme63
Years pass only Desideria still suffers from the emotional issues that would plague someone who wonders why she was let go for adoption. That, coupled with her mothers outrages behavior in the past that still haunts her in the present. Even the family maid tries to take advantage of Desideria's emotional instability by forcing a sexual encounter with her (at the request of her mother's boyfriend) while shopping. Desideria decides she's had enough and fights back through blackmailing her mother's boyfriend, who eventually pays her off. She uses the money she acquires and confronts the maid who directs her to a guy she knows that will get rid of her mother's boyfriend (for a price) via murder for hire. The alleged hit-man complicates matters by falling in love with Viola. But still wanting to help Desideria with her problem he hires another hit-man to finish the job. What follows is even more lies on top of more blackmail as Desideria becomes the victim of a twisted and tangled web of deception, resulting in a powerful ending. Not the best transfer to DVD but still a very watchable movie as any film would be that features Italian film star Stefania Sandrelli. As usual, Sandrelli manages to steal every scene she's in. Whats unfortunate here is, she's not nearly in it enough.
olofpalme63