If only this could have a decent story to make us more interested than just seeing a bizarre love story between a horny teenager and a beautiful and somewhat problematic woman. The problem is that "Diavolo in Corpo" ("Devil in the Flesh") begins well but ends so weak that there isn't much positive things to be said after this, and not even its most infamous moment deserves so much credit. It's a lifeless film that knows how to tease its viewers with a highly sensual and erotic story that grabs them all with an explicit sex scene, concluding with an absurd and ridiculous ending.
Nonetheless, somehow this has some good merits. Director Marco Bellocchio (from the great "Good Morning, Night") surely cast two interesting and beautiful stars for his love story; their acting abilities goes in between good and ferociously bad. Maruschka Detmers is very wild and sexy as the lady who tempts the life of the bello ragazzo Federico Pitzalis (amazingly his only screen credit), a young student deeply in love with her. The plot goes into show us that she's waiting her fianceé to be released from jail, arrested after his involvement in political activities against the government. The rest is a bunch of low and uninteresting surprises.
It's very unbelievable the romance between the boy and the woman, I mean, everything is so colorful, happy and happens too fast; sure they have problems, she's completely nuts and has some hysterical attacks, but there isn't much time to look deep into all that. These things might work but only if we're talking about fanfics (and sometimes they're better written than many films out there).
Those who complained about the film being difficult to follow I wonder how are they treating their brain. This is very easy to follow, the story has a good pace; it's just not that interesting except for the sex scenes. And those scenes are the highlight of this film, that's why people know about it and the reason why they give a try for it. Well, they're well filmed and very exciting. Now, about the famous scene where Detmers performs oral sex in Federico, it isn't so special if you've seen the one of "Brown Bunny" for instance. But it is real, and it's not that dark as many tend to say, it's clearly visible (if only that beautiful boy had a bigger product, if you know what I mean).
I don't know what ruined this film for me, if it was the awful soundtrack (it really hurts the ears) or the director's pretense in trying to make some political statements that simply didn't fit the plot no matter how hard he forced that on us. See it for yourself, kill your curiosity and like it or not. We all go a little silly, sometimes! And that's why films like this have a surprising ability to be viewed even almost 30 years of its making. 5/10
