DVD Released: May 19th, 2009
Approximate Running Time: 88 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Full Frame
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo Italian
Subtitles: English
DVD Release: Sinful Mermaid
Region Coding: Region 0 NTSC
Retail Price: $24.95
Reflections of Light
The Film
In Reflections of Light Gabriele Tinti plays a self pitying musical composer confined to a wheelchair surrounded by his son, second wife and lesbian secretary who are all up to naughty shenanigans. That’s it. Nothing much of a plot and it all is just a premise to show as much soft sex as possible. The script writers did not even make much of the fact that Tinti’s condition is meant to be primarily psychological. At the start of the film I could have sworn that at one stage he’d be kicked out of the wheelchair to walk again, but surprisingly enough none of that ever happens.
Then again you don’t watch an Italian sex drama of the 1980s for anything resembling a decent story line. I must have watched dozens of those in my time and can seriously not remember anything from these movies and doubt that I’ll remember much of Reflections of Light in, ooh, say two hours time either.
What these kinds of movies did do, however, was to install an eternal love for Italian soft bodies in me. And this film is no different: The ladies are drop dead gorgeous and have enough incidences of accidentally revealing their boobies, splashing themselves in naughty water fights or engaging in Sapphic delights that I for one found time was passing quickly enough watching the movie.
For a change Gabriele Tinti plays the lead and his real-life wife Laura Gemser only second fiddle. Tinti and Gemser were in scores of films together until Tinti’s untimely death in the early 90s when Gemser subsequently gave up filming altogether.
In Reflections of Light Gemser appears as Tinti’s character’s first wife in a couple of flashbacks and also features in one of the worst deaths by capable swimmer in shallow water scenes ever.
This is quite obviously a bargain basement production with only a handful of actors and most scenes shot in the grounds of just one Italian villa (my hunch: the producer’s). Nevertheless this is shot quite stylishly and you’ll easily forget the low production values.
Mario Bianchi who churned out scores of these types of movies under a dozen different pseudonyms directs and the only name actor of sorts (apart from Tinti and Gemser) is Jessica Moore as the son’s love interest who for a short period was somewhat of a trash movie star following Joe D’Amato’s 11 Days 11 Nights/Top Model films.
If you’ve seen only one of this style of movies before you know what to expect: Love scenes with the same damn piano score played ad infinitum. Long lingering looks over quiet dinner tables. And big permed hair 1980s style that deserves a credit of its own.
Extras
This is yet another one of Sinful Mermaid’s bare bone releases. Apart from the film (Italian with English subs) all you can expect is a picture gallery of screen shots, not even a trace of a trailer in sight. One of these days, however, I would like to find out more about the guy who writes their DVD back cover blurbs as they are genuinely hilarious. Not only does he reveal the entire plot from start to finish, the info about the actors is completely useless and consists entirely of the number of films these guys made: “Gabriele Gori who appeared in 17 films”, “Jessica Moore who appeared in 9 films” etc etc.
Overall
Watch it if you’ve got nothing better to do and like this Italian sub-genre. Don’t bother if you need anything resembling a plot to keep you remotely interested.
Review by Holger Haase
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