★ 5 / 10
A Stylish But Uneven Psychosexual Thriller
MajesticMane
Il sesso degli angeli (1968), also known as The Sex of Angels, is a visually striking Italian thriller that promises more than it ultimately delivers. While…
Il sesso degli angeli (1968), also known as The Sex of Angels, is a visually striking Italian thriller that promises more than it ultimately delivers. While boasting an intriguing premise and gorgeous cinematography, the film struggles to maintain its momentum, resulting in a somewhat uneven viewing experience.The film's strongest asset is undoubtedly its lush, sun-drenched visuals that capture the allure of the Adriatic coast. Director Ugo Liberatore, making his feature debut, demonstrates a keen eye for composition and an ability to create an unsettling, dreamlike atmosphere through clever camerawork and lighting. The jazzy score by Giovanni Fusco also adds to the film's seductive, yet ominous tone.Unfortunately, the narrative itself fails to live up to its provocative setup. What begins as a tantalizing psychosexual thriller about three wealthy women who kidnap a stranger for a drug-fueled weekend loses its way in the second half. The pacing slows to a crawl, and the characters' motivations become increasingly muddled and implausible. The performances are solid, with Rosemary Dexter as the unhinged ringleader making a particularly strong impression, but they can't fully compensate for the script's deficiencies.While far from a complete misfire, Il sesso degli angeli never quite capitalizes on its intriguing premise or stylistic flair. It remains a fascinating cult curiosity from the psychedelic era and an interesting early entry in Liberatore's filmography. However, its inability to sustain its initial sense of dread and eroticism relegates it to the ranks of a flawed, though visually arresting, minor giallo/thriller.
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★ 4 / 10
Not much sex and no angels whatsoever
ofumalow
Three privileged young women more or less steal a yacht for an impromptu trip from Vienna to the Yugoslavian coast, and for further entertainment purposes also…
Three privileged young women more or less steal a yacht for an impromptu trip from Vienna to the Yugoslavian coast, and for further entertainment purposes also sorta-kidnap a handsome young man they've barely met. Unsurprisingly, jealousies and strife break out, there is violence, and eventually mortal peril surfaces. The problem is, most of that action happens offscreen--what's onscreen is just a lot of pretty people in skimpy bathing suits arguing. No one is particularly sympathetic here, and their company is tiresome enough that the runtime feels much longer than it is. Halfway through the characters take LSD, and you think "At last! Something will happen, and there will be visuals beyond pretty people and pretty scenery!" Then the film cuts directly to the morning after, when no one remembers what happened while they were high. What a letdown. Then the squabbling resumes.I get it that in 1968, a high degree of exposed skin and characters talking this casually about sex and their own lack of morality would have been very new, enough to at least somewhat justify the whole otherwise rudderless enterprise. But now the effect is just boring. It's not that these actors are bad, or unattractive, it's that they aren't allowed to be interesting--they're playing spoilt adults brats whose fate we don't care about, and that in itself doesn't make any meaningful point about society or whatever. The suspense elements are too inertly handled to generate any tension at all. If the film had consisted of these four actors sunbathing for two hours, it wouldn't be very different, because that's exactly what it FEELS like.Curiously, the very same year there was a now-largely-forgotten British film called "The Touchables" that was also about several very fashionable, superficial young women who kidnap an attractive young man and hold them captive for similar "sharing" purposes (this time in an inflatable plastic "dome" in the countryside). That movie is not exactly "good," but it is definitely fun in a datedly mod, psychedelic, wildly aestheticized way. Whereas "Sex of Angels" survives as nothing more than a testament to sun, scenery and near-nudity, things that have not gotten more compelling with age.
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80%
AUDIENCE
5.0/10
274
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it's only commentary audio, how to get audio of the movie?