Were this film stripped of
its trappings as a European art piece, it would stand revealed as the salacious
story of a middle-aged man who cheats on his wife with a troubled young woman,
even though circumstantial evidence suggests he might be the young woman’s
father. Yes, Stay As You Are tackles
the serious issues of adultery, betrayal, and incest by way of a glossy
presentation that extensively showcases costar Nastassja Kinski sans clothing. Stay As You Are is a fairly credible movie, inasmuch as the
philandering protagonist experiences an existential crisis, so it’s not as if
the filmmakers pat him on the back for sleeping with his maybe-daughter. Still,
despite a romantic score by Ennio Morricone and a jaunty performance by leading
man Marcello Mastraoianni, Kinski’s formidable sexual power is the focus. She’s
mesmerizing whenever she’s onscreen, whether dressed or not, even though her
performance is tentative.
Cowritten and directed by Alberto Lattuada, Stay As You Are stars Mastroianni as
Giulio, an Italian architect who meets a schoolgirl named Francesca (Kinski)
while traveling on business. Despite learning that he knew Francesca’s late
mother and therefore might be her biological father, Giulio hides his suspicions
from the young woman even as she flirts with him—and even as he (weakly)
resists his lust for her. After the movie’s turgid middle passage, during which
Giulio faces various family issues (“A frigid wife, a whoring husband, a
pregnant daughter, and now an abortion for the grand finale!”), Giulio succumbs
to temptation by taking Francesca to a hotel in Madrid for sex—lots and lots
of sex. Francesca turns out to be a piece of work, at one point serving Giulio
a cup filled with her own urine, and the story eventually moves in a
bittersweet direction.
Beyond its questionable psychosexual content, Stay As You Are has a few genuine
cinematic virtues. The naturalistic cinematography by José Luis Alcaine is
quite beautiful (some shots of Kinski, her long hair illuminated by the sun,
are breathtaking), and Lattuada generates rich atmosphere with scenes of the
artist-refuge neighborhood where Kinski’s character lives with an equally
nubile roommate, who also, inexplicably, tries to seduce Mastraoinnani’s
character. (The degree of male wish-fulfillment on display here is
extraordinary.) In the end, Stay As You
Are is probably half legitimate drama and half sex fantasy, which means
it’s neither disposable softcore nor a truly lofty rumination on desire. It’s a
grown-up movie that most viewers will seek out only for the purpose of
reveling in Kinski’s beauty. (Available
from www.CultEpics.com)
Stay as You Are: FUNKY
1 comment:
It's funny that the soundtrack album has a track called "A Nastassia", did no one tell Morricone her character's name?
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