This movie is called "Venial Sins" which are, of course, small sins that can be easily forgiven. This is a kind of sequel to Salvatore Samperi and Laura Antonelli's more famous film "Malizia". But whereas that was about a teenage boy who is in love with his maid-cum-stepmother (Laura Antonelli) and sexually blackmails her before she turns the tables, this is a more gentle film about a teenage boy (Allesandro Momo) in love the with his blow-hard brother's wife (Antonelli again). But he doesn't sexually blackmail her, nor is there the kind of class exploitation that puts the "malice" in "Malizia". This is a much more gentle comedy that has the boy confessing that he's in love with a married woman to his brother, only to have the oblivious buffoon actually encourage his younger sibling to cuckold "the lady's husband". Meanwhile, the elderly patriarch of the family ogles his young maid and is trying to kill his wife's annoying dog, but he too does not really step over the line like the characters in "Malizia" or other Salvatore Samperi movies.
The same way Russ Meyer is cinematically obsessed with large breasts, Tinto Brass with voluptuous asses, and David Hamiliton with nubile, post-adolescent females, Italian filmmaker Salvatore Samperi is obsessed with incest. It is a theme in every one of his movies. "Malizia" and "Kill the Fatted Lamb" are about sons and stepmothers. "Grazie Zia" is about a nephew and aunt. "The Smell of Flesh" is about an uncle and niece. "Nene" is about underage cousins. "Scandalo" is about a mother giving her teenage daughter to her male lover. "Ernesto" involves a bisexual three-way with male and female fraternal twins. And "The Dark Side of Love" is about the blood taboo of brother and sister. Compared to these, teenage boy and sister-in-law is indeed a pretty venial sin. Also, I don't know if it was just the version I saw, but this particular movie has NO sex or nudity in it, even with both Antonelli and a teenage Monica Guerritori in the cast (two actresses never renown for leaving their clothes on). It could have just been a TV-friendly cut, but this also fits with the lighter tone of this particular movie.
One thing's for sure Salvatore Samperi desperately needs an English-friendly DVD box set devoted to him. His movies are almost all only available in horrible-looking bootlegs with truly atrocious dubbing or no English subtitles whatsoever. Cut or not, the version I saw of this looked very good and had English subs, but while I'm a long, long way from fluent in Italian, I think I speak it better than the guy who "fan-subbed" this thing evidently speaks English. I had to totally ignore the subtitles at some points because they were so baffling. Still, like all Samperi films, this one is definitely worth seeing.
