Summer Night (1986)

Summer Night, with Greek Profile, Almond Eyes and Scent of Basil (1986), or Notte d'estate con profilo greco, occhi a mandorla e odore di basilico is another Lina Wertmüller offering that covers pretty much the same philosophical and political ground as Swept Away (Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto). Mariangela Melato reprises her role as the rich, opinionated northern Italian industrialist. In this case, she has figured out how to make a fortune in ecology. Her opposite, a Sicilian gangster, is played this time by Michele Placido.

The plot device is an ironic twist on some actual criminal behavior of the time in Italy. Placido is an "old school" gangster who isn't interested in drugs, and leads a gang who kidnaps for ransom. Melato hires an ex CIA/FBI/Interpol agent (Roberto Herlitzka ), also a Sicilian, to kidnap Placido and hold him for ransom. As they keep him captive awaiting word from his gang, Herlitzka falls for Melato, but Melato in turn is sexually attracted to Placido. At first they keep him in a dungeon, blindfolded and chained, and try to starve him into submission. When he fades physically, but remains as stubborn and confrontational as ever, she moves him to a lush solarium. It is then that he demands sexual gratification. After all, he gratifies all of his kidnap victims, and even state prisons have conjugal visits! Melato brings in two hookers, but joins them in bed with the still-blindfolded Placido. He chooses Melato, and she is very glad he did. In contrast to an earlier sex scene with her refined boyfriend, she clearly enjoyed this encounter immensely. I will leave the rest of the story for you to discover.

Lina Wertmüller seems to be expressing that both the rich and the poor are products of their society, both have strengths and weaknesses, and both could benefit from understanding the other. In doing so, she seems to make the poor man the more sympathetic character. Fair enough. The tough question is whether or not this is worth watching. 

Summer Night has some inherent structural problems:

First of all, with the villain chained most of the film, it's necessarily static, and the nudity doesn't start until the half-way point, making the first half a little dry.

Second, the plot line doesn't allow for any real role exchange, with Placido dominating throughout. He is adequate, but has nowhere near the intensity of Giancarlo Giannini in Swept Away.

Third, as in Swept Away, Melato's character is a motor-mouthed bitch, which is irritating. Herlitzka provides a little comic relief to mitigate that but, unfortunately, there is no conversion or character development for Melato this time as there was in Swept Away. She remains the motor-mouthed bitch the entire film.

Overall, this seemed very much like an attempt by Wertmüller to recapture the magic of Swept Away. Who can blame her? Watching the young gymnasts in the Olympics, I often have wondered what it is like to peak at 14 years of age, with the entire rest of your life being downhill from there. Having a huge success like Swept Away early in her career must have made it difficult to compete with herself. Yet, Summer Night is not a bad film. There are many positives. The estate where this was filmed was beautiful, as were the Mediterranean beach scenes. The DVD transfer is first rate. More important, the plot did draw me in eventually, and I ended up enjoying it, so it is possible you will as well -  but if you are only going to see one of these two Wertmüller films,  go for Swept Away.

I will call this a C-. IMDB: 5.8

Even though Mariangela Melato was 12 years older in this film than in Swept Away, she didn't shy away from nudity. She revels breasts in two sex scenes and a swimming scene, and buns in one of the sex scenes and the swimming scene.

 

Vampz (2004) 

"A police detective with a violent temper has two major problems: His wife is cheating on him, and he has no leads in a series of gory local slayings. The two troubles become one when, after a particularly nasty confrontation, his wife leaves home and unknowingly resides with the killers: a trio of sexy vampires posing as masseuses."

--- summary written by the writer/director ---

Vampz started off with some promise. And when I say start, I mean the very moment it came in the mail. From that point on, it was all downhill. Imagine the concept. I did. two previous movies were made with Vamp in the title, both with lots of nekkid babes - the second way more than the first - so I am figuring there was some sort of trend. The concept ... what might have made this a special little movie ... is the urban slant to the story. I was figuring on beautiful gals, most of them black, all of them nekkid. We get two outta three. Beautiful gals, including former Hefmate Serria Tawan, who was taking time away from her amateur video productions, and a real babe by the name of Emayatzy Corinealdi. They and all the other gals are both black and gorgenous. But not a one gets nekkid. Even though the setting for the most of the movie is supposed to be a brothel and even though no one in this cast was in any position to negotiate a no-nudity clause, the gals stayed dressed.  Even when they are supposed to be humping they and the johns remain clothed. WTF? What manner of strumpet remains ensheathed in garments whilst practicing the adult arts? The closest anyone gets to major goodies is an accidental nip-slip by Serria, a few views of her thong-clad killer rumpus and some pokies by Emayatzy. That's it. A new low in vampire hooker movies when only acres of flesh would have elevated this thing above levels seen only in Presidential approval ratings. 

What Vampz subsitutes for skin is blood and guts. As was the case in previous Vamp movies, the gals are vampires. But not your tidy, puncture the jugular and drink hearty kind. Nosiree, we have the kind who rip open a guy and feast on his entrails. So we got gore.  Lots of gore. And we have some extraordinarily weak attempts at humor...the kind your drunk redneck of a brother-in-law launches into after his fifteenth beer. Stupid shit. So I'm saying the script sucked ass? Yep. And the directing, Brain, how was it? Well, when it was evident that anyone was directing this green sputum of a movie, the intention seemed to be to destroy any sense of pacing or drama. Producer must have been crazy to hire these guys, right? Well, even crazier than you might think because the producer, the director and the writer were the same guy. I have forgotten his name. Blessed gift, this senility.

Of all the messes this movie made on the carpet of my psyche, there is one that still bemuses me. Not amuse...bemuse...as in befuddle or confuse in a vexing manner. Very first scene has a nice-looking vampire hunt, screw and eat this guy off the streets of LA. Fine. She is a beautiful woman who starts off the whole she-bang by keeping on her clothes. Long story but she is supposed to get burned by sunlight because she stayed out too late...or early, depending on your point of view. Okay. That's fine. Didn't know who she was ... but certainly not Serria Tawan because I know her face and body pretty well. Very next scene, however, has the queen vamp (played by Tawanna Browne) discovering that the unter-vamp has been naughty by hunting alone and got burned for her efforts. What's the problem? NOW the burned vampire is played by Serria. Somewhere between scene 1 and scene 2, Serria took over the part of the hungry/horny vampire. Again, WTF?  That original actress appears nowhere else in the movie. So, what happened to her? And why not re-shoot the frist scene with Serria doing the honors? By the looks of it, mighta taken ten minutes to shoot on the initial attempt. And so it goes, less dramatically for the whole movie. Guys thrown backward land face-first. All-powerful, quick-as-lightening vampires forget how to run when faced with a cross. Some German guy shows up and annoys the living crap out of everyone. And the lead actor has the same look on his face when he is getting screwed or discovers his wife getting screwed or gets behind the wheel of his Honda Accord and pulls away from the curb. Bottom line is I am bemused ... but very, very unamused that I wasted $12 and 90 minutes on this meal fit only for a dung beetle. 

Emayatzy Corienadli

Serria Tawan

Tawanna Browne