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DEVIL IN THE FLESH (1985)
Directed by: Marco Bellocchio.
Produced by: Leo Pescarolo.
Written by: Marco Bellocchio, Ennio De Concini & Enrico Palandri, based on the novel by Raymond Radiguet.
Director of Photography: Giuseppe Lanci.
Edited by: Mirco Garrone.
Music by: Carlo Crivelli.
Released by: NoShame.
Language: Italian with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Italy/France. 114 min. Not Rated.
With: Maruschka Detmers, Federico Pitzalis, Anita Laurenzi & Riccardo De Torrebruna.
DVD Features: "Stolen Years, Hidden Lives" featurette, interviews with former Red Brigaders Adriana Faranda & Mara Nanni. "In Bellocchio's Flesh" interview with director Marco Bellocchio. Trailer. Poster & still gallery. Booklet.

This ‘80s curio gained notoriety, as well as an “X” rating, for featuring explicit sex long before the arrival of this year’s 9 Songs. In director Marco Bellocchio’s loose update of the classic French novel, Andrea (Federico Pitzalis), a taciturn 18-year-old student, spies on the beautiful and seemingly bourgeoise Giulia (Maruschka Detmers) living across the courtyard from his school. Skipping class, he follows her to a courthouse, where she daily and dutifully attends the trial of her fiancé, a recanting member of a Red Brigade-type terrorist group. The turbulent Italian politics are played down - in fact, they’re only tenuously connected to Giulia’s gradual seduction of the innocent and blank-faced Andrea.

If her sudden mood swings, maniacal laughter, and violent temper aren’t enough of a hint, Andrea’s father, a psychiatrist, warns him Giulia is unstable. He had been her doctor. (Based on his heated admonitions, it’s clear his was not an orthodox doctor-patient relationship). Given that physically she’s a cross between Jacqueline Bisset and Jennifer Jones, Detmers’ charms are more than apparent, whether she’s wearing Fendi haute couture - or nothing at all. However, the mixture of sex and politics is less incendiary than might be imagined. They most pointedly collide as Andrea recounts a fairy tale of Lenin’s arrival into St. Petersburg as Giulia (famously) fellates him.

Those interested only in the erotic aspect of the film will be disappointed; although there’s plenty of sex, this is a studied study of madness. Filmed in static long takes, there’s a feeling of detachment as Giulia’s sensitive one moment, threatening the next. Since she readily admits she’s crazy, there’s little at stake for her. True to her word, she doesn’t change. In comparison to the sexuality and madness of The Piano Teacher, Devil in the Flesh is much more temperate and underwritten.

DVD Extras: Although prison life is barely touched upon in the film, the candid featurette “Stolen Years, Hidden Lives” engagingly sheds light on life in the big house with two ex-convicts and former Red Brigade members. Fittingly the focus is on sex. Freed from the constraints of the underground organization, Mara Nanni claims she experienced more freedom in prison than on the outside. She critiques the scene in Devil where defendants have sex in the courtroom as being exaggerated, and clarifies how they actually did exactly that during the trials. Adriana Faranda refreshingly goes further in her criticism, “The view taken of those times seemed a bit superficial and external to the view of the people who’d experience that situation.” The other featurette, the director’s interview, is dry in contrast, save for his revelation that a psychiatrist was on the set giving actress Detmers suggestions, ideas and images for her character. And for a brief history of the Red Brigade, the booklet provides a helpful outline. Kent Turner
August 30, 2005