LA SEDUZIONE (1973) Blu-ray
Director: Fernando Di Leo
Raro Video USA

Fernando Di Leo explores "Lolitaism" in Raro Video USA's Blu-ray of LA SEDUZIONE.

Having traveled the world as a journalist based in Paris, Giuseppe (Maurice Ronet, PURPLE NOON) returns to home to Catania, Sicily to sell the family home after his mother passes away. Old pal Alfredo's (Pino Caruso, MALICIOUS) idea of catching Giuseppe up is to discuss his prospects for getting some action, but Giuseppe is only curious about first love Caterina (Lisa Gastoni, WAKE UP AND DIE) who he discovers is now a widow. Despite concern about propriety and local gossip, Caterina lets Giuseppe visit her and they resume their affair. For her, it is as if the years have melted away, but Giuseppe is unable to recapture the feelings of his youth. Giuseppe when he sells his home and moves in with them, taking over the role of "man of the house" and "daddy" to Caterina's teenage daughter Graziella (Jenny Tamburi, THE SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A MINOR). At first, Giuseppe is at first unsure whether she is as "hot blooded" as Alfredo suggests or if he is projecting onto her. One of them makes the first movie, and he is soon breaking dates with Caterina – whose worldly friend Luisa (Graziella Galvani, THE NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS) is too charmed by the "Parisian bachelor" in contrast to the local Lotharios to suspect anything amiss – to hang around the house and bed Graziella. When Caterina finds out, she is conflicted between her love and hatred for Giuseppe as well as her feelings of betrayal by Graziella and her need to protect the girl. While Giuseppe believes that Graziella is just infatuated with him, Caterina insists that Graziella is in love with him and does not want him to hurt her. Giuseppe's decision to disabuse Graziella of her feelings with her equally-young best friend Rosina (Barbara Marzano, THE BLOODSUCKER LEADS THE DANCE) sets the stage for tragedy.

Based on the novel "Graziella" by Ercole Patti – whose novel LA CUGINE was adapted the following year by Aldo Lado – LA SEDUZIONE is a rather dreary treatment by director Fernando Di Leo (MILAN CALIBRE 9) of a Lolita-like tale enlivened by the lead performances, with middle-aged Gastoni giving a physically and emotionally-naked performance as a woman content to widowhood until her old feelings are reawakened. When she rails at Giuseppe about the apparent one-sided seduction of her daughter, her repeated cries of "she still has time" suggest her own regret at being emotionally trapped by her feelings for Giuseppe even during her unhappy marriage. Ronet also acquits himself well as a man who falls into a morally dubious relationship, loving Caterina even as he betrays her, and continuing to love her even as he admits that things are unbearable between them. Tamburi is at her best in wordless scenes, seeming to be "acting" younger than she is on the Italian track and dubbed with an annoyingly girlish voice on the English. Regular cinematographer Franco Villa (SLAUGHTER HOTEL) gives the film a sleek look, contrasting sweaty close-ups and picturesque Sicilian vistas, while regular composer Luis Bacalov (DJANGO) goes for high romanticism. The film could be seen to form a sort of trilogy with his two earlier works of A WRONG WAY TO LOVE and BURN, BOY, BURN, two erotic dramas that broke up his earlier period as a jobbing screenwriter of spaghetti westerns – having directed only the war film CODE NAME: RED ROSES before – and the crime films with which he has become recognized.

Unreleased in the United States – although it was released in English in Australia in 1974 – LA SEDUZIONE was first released on DVD in Italy in a non-anamorphic transfer with Italian audio and English subtitles. Raro Video USA's 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC widescreen Blu-ray is oddly windowboxed at 1.95:1, although the hard mattes seem to peek through even at this ratio. The image is bright and colorful but a little flat, with close-ups looking the best if a little waxy. Reel change marks appear and an ugly frame tear lasts for a single frame in one close-up. Unlike the DVD, the Blu-ray features both English and Italian audio tracks. The Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track is recommended not only because it just plays better in terms of the vocal performance, but it sound fuller and cleaner. The English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track, on the other hand, sounds like it came from a tape source. It is lower, hissier, and sounds waterlogged as it if it had undergone some heavy noise reduction to clean it up. Optional subtitles are available only with the Italian track, although the English track forces subtitles for a handful of scenes that were only included in the Italian version.

The documentary "Notes on Eroticism" (31:48) features Di Leo, cinematographer Villa, actress Tamburi, and producer Armando Novelli (EYES BEHIND THE STARS). Novelli reveals that another producer originally had the rights to the novel but the filmmaker who were to make it reportedly went to Catania for a few weeks shooting with a camera but no film, whereupon Novelli offered to buy the property off of him. He states that Di Leo rewrote the script but that it was too saucy so he brought in couple Marino Onorati (NAKED VIOLENCE) and Luisa Montagnana (SPASMO) to perform rewrites. He also recalls wanting Ornella Muti (OASIS OF FEAR) to play the role of Graziella but Gastoni refused to work with her, and Tamburi was hired the day before shooting was to commence. Tamburi reveals that she also did not get on with Gastoni, but she was in love with Ronet and required Di Leo to cheer her up when the actor ignored her. Villa discusses his lighting schemes for the film as well as the notion of arousal versus eroticism in shooting sex scenes in terms of scene length and shot distance while Di Leo distinguishes "Lolitaism" and paedophilia. Included with the disc is a liner notes booklet by Bret Wood who provides some background detail on the source novel as it differs from the film. (Eric Cotenas)

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