Review of Lady Of The Night

Introduction

I first became familiar with "La Signora della notte" ten or so years ago when this 1985 piece of Italian exploitation cinema was screened on German television and I caught a transmission on my much-missed Astra satellite system. When the DVD landed on my mat a few days ago, the name didn`t ring any kind of bell, but once I started watching it I soon recognised an old friend.

Let me start by saying this movie is neither explicit nor particularly entertaining. It`s typical Italian erotica from the 1980s, full of hairy chicks and ugly misogynistic blokes. It`s being sold by Argent Films as "Tintoesque" - referring to Italian eroticist Tinto Brass - and as such I can`t argue with that. Italian erotica is Italian erotica, and this is Italian erotica. Brass`s work tends to be more bottom-oriented, making him vaguely reminiscent of Russ Meyer, although his films lack much humour. The main reason for the link between this film and Brass is that Brass`s producer Giovanni Bertolucci is common to both.

Lady Of The Night is directed by Piero Schivazappa, and stars Serena Grandi who will be familiar to anyone who has seen Tinto Brass`s Miranda. According to the blurb, she was voted the sexiest woman in Italy which will be news to Sophia Loren. The movie is presented "uncut" for the first time, which means three minutes of material has been restored from the last mauling it got at the hands of the BBFC. The restored material appears to be a sequence which sexualises a twelve-bore shotgun when the heroine encounters a gentleman carrying one in the shooting range loo and is more stupidly dangerous than erotic.

Serena Grandi is certainly a fine figure of a woman, and you get to see her nekkid a number of times during the film, but remember the Italians don`t make their mucky movies like the Americans - there`s quite a subtle story going on here, and it`s definitely a lot deeper (intellectually,you mucky-minded pup!) than anything you`d find a US prawnstar doing.

Video

The transfer is satisfactory, showing some age damage, and is presented surprisingly (for one of these movies) in anamorphic 16:9. Like many of this type of movie released by these independent labels, the original materials leave something to be desired and the master print used is very grainy. More distressing are the fashions worn by the characters, not least the rag bag of tracksuits and leotards worn by the ladies of an exercise class.

Audio

The movie has been dubbed into English and carries a diabolical synthesizer music track by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis. The sound comes in Dolby 2.0.

Features

There is a trailer for Dirty Love 2, the stablemate of this release (reviewed elsewhere), but that`s it.

Conclusion

It still has a frisson of sexuality about it, even after twenty years (yikes!). Serena Grandi is a fine big girl and she certainly gets to know a number of men in a strictly biblical sense in this picture. I`m not entirely sure what audience these releases are aimed at, but they fall squarely between two stools, being too steamy for the mainstream market (like a poor man`s Last Tango In Paris) but also being not steamy enough for the raincoat market.

Somebody out there must love this movie and want to give it a good home.