''Devil in the Flesh'' (original title: ''Il diavolo in corpo'') is an Italian film released in 1986 and directed by

Marco Bellocchio Marco Bellocchio (; born 9 November 1939) is an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor. Life and career Born in Bobbio, near Piacenza, Marco Bellocchio had a strict Catholic upbringing – his father was a lawyer, his mother a schoolt ...

. An adaptation of Raymond Radiguet’s novel '' Le Diable au corps'', the film stars Federico Pitzalis as a high school student who falls in love with an older woman (played by

Maruschka Detmers Maruschka Detmers (born 16 December 1962, Schoonebeek) is a Dutch actress. She moved to France as a teenager after finishing school, where she captured the attention of director Jean-Luc Godard. In 1983, she made her dramatic debut under Godard' ...

Storyline

An Italian high school student named Andrea becomes infatuated with Giulia, an older woman he sees outside his classroom window. Giulia's fiancé, a leftist radical, has been jailed and is currently on trial for political crimes. Andrea and Giulia meet and begin a sexual relationship, rendezvousing in her apartment. The situation becomes complicated when her fiancé's mother finds out about this and confronts Andrea's father. a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who has treated Giulia in the past. The psychiatrist finds himself the target of Giulia's sexual advances, which he attributes to madness. As a passionate affair unfolds between Giulia and Andrea, the viewer is left wondering exactly how mentally unbalanced Giulia really is, and whether she had an affair with the boy's father as well. Intensity of passion between Giulia and Andrea builds towards a climax. Andrea's father confronts him about the affair, but Andrea does not back down. Giulia's husband is released from jail. The final ten minutes present a fitting conclusion to all the confusion and passion built up craftily in the film.

Production

One of the more notable aspects of the film is an extended (though darkly lit) scene in which the character played by Maruschka Detmers performs unsimulated (i.e., actual)

fellatio Fellatio (also known as fellation, and in slang as blowjob, BJ, giving head, or sucking off) is an oral sex act involving a person stimulating the penis of another person by using the mouth, throat, or both. Oral stimulation of the scrotu ...

on the character played by Federico Pitzalis. The oral sex scene between

and Federico Pitzalis wasn't part of the script. It was Massimo Fagioli, a

's collaborator, who suggested it."

References

External links

* Films directed by Marco Bellocchio 1986 romantic drama films 1986 films Italian romantic drama films Erotic romance films Films based on French novels Films based on romance novels Italian erotic drama films 1980s erotic drama films 1980s Italian-language films 1980s Italian films {{erotic-film-stub