La Carne (1991) The Flesh

Director: Marco Ferreri
Writers: Liliane Betti, Massimo Bucchi
Stars: Sergio Castellitto, Francesca Dellera, Philippe Léotard

Paolo is a divorced father of two who earns his living as a nightclub entertainer. One night, he meets Francesca, a strangely attractive woman, and after some rather peculiar talk about her having had sex with an Indian guru, they head off for his beach house for an assignation. Francesca uses some special secrets taught to her by her guru to turn him into a paralyzed sex-slave. All he can do is talk, while his body is out of his control and his penis remains continually erect. He seems to accept the situation, although it becomes pretty awkward when his children come over for a visit. After that, things take a darker turn. Viewers who saw this film at the 1991 Cannes Film Festival considered it self-indulgent, and too much like Ferrari's earlier La Dernière Femme (1976).

Marco Ferreri, the man who directed La Grande Bouffe and who acted in Pasolini’s Porcile, directed The Flesh (La Carne) in 1991. The film played Cannes and had a brief theatrical run afterwards, but has been tough to see outside of poor quality bootlegs ever since (at least in North America). Cult Epics fixes that with this new Blu-ray release.

The film revolves around the exploits of a recently divorced piano player named Paolo (Sergio Castellitto). By chance one day, he meets a gorgeous woman named Francesca (Francesca Dellera) and, not surprisingly, falls head over heels in love with her pretty much instantly. It makes sense that Paolo would throw himself at her the way he does, not just because she’s beautiful, but because his lot in life is a little dire since the divorce. His job isn’t fulfilling, his ex-wife took custody of the kids and he really doesn’t have a whole lot going for him.

Francesca takes advantage of this, to start, realizing that he’ll basically do whatever she wants him to do. They head off to a small seaside cottage at her behest, where he indulges her every suggestion – some of which are a little odd. When she decides to leave, however, Paolo’s got other ideas and things get even more bizarre from there.

Francesca Dellera, who will be familiar to Tinto Brass fans thanks to her turn in Capriccio in 1987, didn’t appear in more than a handful of movies but she certainly has an undeniable screen presence. Not only is she extremely attractive but she’s able to control the screen the same way that she’s able to control Paolo. The camera loves her and she loves it back, delivering a fairly perfect performance as the film’s female lead. Her work contrasts in interesting ways with Sergio Castellitto’s performance, at least to start with.

Where she exudes sex appeal and self-confidence he’s meek, unsure of himself. Where she can be quite demanding, he’s often times the submissive in the relationship. She walks on him. Of course, once this shifts, so too do both performances, but detailing exactly how and why that happens would be an injustice to those who haven’t seen the movie yet. No spoilers here. Let it suffice to say that the acting from both principals is very good and it suits both the film’s quirky story and eclectic direction quite nicely.

Marco Ferreri’s direction is assured. The movie is nicely paced and it manages to deliver the right mix of humor, drama, weirdness and proper character development. It doesn’t always ‘play nice’ but it doesn’t need to. This is hardly the sort of sappy, sugary sweet romance film you expect when discussing romantic comedies but more of a black comedy with a twisted arthouse slant. The camerawork is solid and both the locations and the set dressing interesting and appealing to the eye.

While The Flesh might technically be a romantic comedy, don’t go into this one expecting anything conventional by the standards of that genre. While Ferreri’s film will be worth seeing for some simply for the presence of the beautiful Francesca Deller, it’s also quite clever, quite twisted and quite entertaining.

Special Features:
- Backstage (04:58, in Italian only)
- Filmography
- Gallery