Una ondata di piacere (1975)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Director:

Ruggero Deodato

Writers:

Gianlorenzo Battaglia (story)
Lamberto Bava (story)

Release Date:

4 August 1975 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

LURED... into a voyage of Desire... and Danger!

Plot:

A young couple becomes embroiled with the personal problems of another couple on a yacht moored off Sicily during a turbulent weekend of fun, games, sex games, betrayal, spouse abuse, and murder.

Plot Keywords:

Weekend | Yacht | Sex | Misogyny | Sicily

Cast

Al Cliver	...	Irem
Silvia Dionisio	...	Barbara
John Steiner	...	Giorgio
Elizabeth Turner	...	Silvia

Also Known As:

A Wave of Pleasure (Europe: English title)
Wave of Lust (USA) (video title)

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Telecolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-18 (cut) | Italy:VM18 | UK:X

Filming Locations:

Cefalù, Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Company:

T.D.L. Cinematografica

Early Deodato film

A mysterious young couple on vacation meet a cruel but rich industrialist and his abused wife. They accept the other couple's invitation to accompany them on a yacht trip. Sex games and eventually murder ensue. This movie is kind of a cross between a Italian giallo, with it's murder plot and jaded European bourgeois characters, and an Italian "terror" film like "Late Night Trains", "Terror Express" (which also featured actress Dionisio) or "House by the Edge of the Park" (also directed by Ruggiero Deodato). It's not quite as nasty as your typical "terror" film, and the emphasis much more on swinging 70's sex than rape/revenge or other violence. It also somewhat resembles the later Australian film "Dead Calm", which may not be a coincidence as the the popular Charles Williams novel that that movie was based on was actually written back in the 1950's and was being kicked around at about that time in Europe and America as a possible Orson Welles project.

But while "Dead Calm" was about sexual tension, this movie is all about sex. The beautiful Silvia Dionisio (who Deodato later married, and I don't blame him a bit) spends more time with her clothes off than on, as does the unknown actress who plays the industrialist's long suffering wife. There is straight sex, lesbian sex, three-way sex, attempted rape, sexual humiliation--the whole nine yards. The half-baked murder plot doesn't occur until the end, and seems pretty perfunctory. But it is good to have a nasty burst of violence to kind of cleanse your palate after sitting through what is almost too much gratuitous sex. Of course, this film not nearly as nasty or harrowing as Deodato's later "Cannibal Holocaust" or "House by the Edge of the Park", but it's probably more fun to watch. And it does show the emergence of some promising exploitation talent in its leading lady and especially in its director.