Customer Reviews

Attention (L'Attenzione)

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Stefania Sandrelli and her daughter Amanda star in this kinky 1984 Italian drama that borders on art house exploitation, centered around true love, lust, and longing peppered with overtones of incest and lesbianism. Livia, expertly played by Stefania, is a successful businesswoman trying to regain the affections of her husband Alberto (Ben Cross), whose journalism career keeps him away from home for months at a time - on purpose (we find out why later).

What Livia does not suspect is that Alberto has a bit more than fatherly affections and attractions for their teenage daughter Monica (Amanda Sandrelli). When he gets home from an overseas assignment, Livia fantasizes how things used to be between them years ago (in wonderful flashbacks that prove Stefania was still an attractive, desirable and sensual creature, even at this age), and again attempts to rekindle the sexual excitement they once shared. But the callous Alberto wants no part of it. He immediately retreats to other parts of the house, with a watchful eye on his daughters' activities.

Livia's own sexual eccentricities lead her to hire young women to have sex with Alberto in an apartment they keep, while she surreptitiously watches through a two-way mirror in another room. Meanwhile, daughter Monica finds out about her father's sideline affairs, and her curiosity starts to get the better of her. From here, things get spicy, dicey, convoluted and more deviant, as you can imagine. That's all you'll get out of me in this review, as I have no intention of spoiling it for those still interested - I found it enjoyable and engaging right up to the ending. Not a great film, but better than most of its Italian ilk from the same time period. And it just narrowly avoids falling into soap-opera terrain. Besides, I love the Sandrelli's...

What makes this film even kinkier was the fact that director Giovanni Soldati was Stefania's real-life long-term partner, and it was his decision to cast his significant other and her daughter in these sexually charged roles - nothing like keeping it all in the family, ay? An odd little film, but worthy of some 'Attention'.