Perversión (1974) Poster

(1974)

User Reviews

Review this title
1 Review
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
5/10
An intriguing thriller stars Nadiuska, Carlos Estrada with suspense, and plot twists.
ma-cortes1 May 2024
Marisa Salinas (Nadiuska) gets her first job at one of the top publishing companies of her country. Don Ricardo Arencibia (Carlos Estrada), her chief, is a man who does not appreciate innovation and new proposals from the staff, but enjoys bloody crime stories, and does like detective novels and gorgeous women too. She will soon live a torrid romance with him. As the upright and mature boss Don Ricardo invites Marisa out for dinner; they start being friends and, soon after, they begin a sexual and passional relationship . All goes well - safe for a little mystery that envelops Ricardo's ex-wife. Marisa decides to investigate... and she will uncover much more than she expected: Ricardo had been trying to make Marisa look like his former wife (Teresa Gimpera), and there is a plot involving large scale corruption and deceit.

Apart from what its strong title suggests we approach Perversion with the presence of three relevant people: we see the star Nadiuska, who was one of the main muses of the ¨Transición¨y the ¨Destape (nudism)¨, the direction is the responsibility of the Valencian Paco Lara Polop, and the script is the work of Juan José Alonso Millán, an expert in zany comedies as cinema as stage. The censorship completely lightened its footage of shots in which the German-born actress showed her exuberant anatomy as an essential requirement to authorize its release.

The film turns out to be a love drama that goes wrong, including intrigue, deceptions, twists and turns. However, it is not until its last third that the film clearly takes the path of suspense and vengeance thriller, until that moment running its narrative course in the typical story of a beautiful young girl who arrives at a new company where she'll fall in love with his chief. The misleading advertising poster suggest nudism, violence, or quirky sexual acts but there are hardly these usual condiments of 70s cinema.

Starring bomb-shell Nadiuska, who at the time was a real sex-symbol, in late 70s and early 80s she was a queen of the soft core movies in Italy and Spain. Many years later she rectified and apostatized of these movies and tried be a normal actress in the commercial cinema. Famous as mother of 'John Milius's Conan', she also played popular films as 'Último deseo' (The People Who Own the Dark,1979), La muerte ronda a Mónica, Chely, Zorrita Martinez, Polvo eres, El chulo, La mosca hispánica. She retired from cinema in 1997, her last movie, 'Brácula. Condemor II', was a tribute dedicated to her by the director. After being homeless for some time and being diagnosed with schizophrenia, nowadays she lives on a mental institution on Ciempozuelos, Madrid (Spain). We miss the appearance of secondary actors who used to enhance the films of the time in such a way that only appear Teresa Gimpera, Ricardo Tundidor and brief intervention by Erasmo Pascual.

With a production design that may vaguely recall that of the then-fashionable Italian Gialli, but this is a thriller more than a Giallo with a mystery surrounds what our starring has to do with Ricardo's ex-wife. The cinematography from Raúl Artigot Francisco Sánchez is lousy, that's why the film copy is worn-out , being extremely necessary a perfect remastering. Adding an atmospheric soundtrack by Ángel Arteaga in that style of 70s music. The motion picture was passably and professionally directed by Francisco Lara. The sober realization of Lara Polop achieving the difficult mission of awakening the viewer's interest in a story seen so many times like that, through ideas as successful as interspersing in the editing shots at first without any relation to what is narrated, thus accentuating the feeling that something strange is hidden behind the apparent normality of the storyline, shots that we will later discover have been revealing the different phases of the game to which the story is subjected. 'Perversion' is a pleasant and reclaimable title that shows us the acceptable work of Lara Polop before it was progressively lost in by-products lacking the slightest interest in a fierce search for commerciality. It seems quite clear that he had enough talent to have taken on more ambitious projects than the ones he finally ended up doing. Polop was an expert on comedy, though he directed other genres . Talented and versatile writer/director made all kinds of genres as Comedy : Le llamaban J. R. , Adulterio nacional , La masajista vocacional, La mujer del juez , Virilidad a la Española ; Action : La patria del rata; Erotic or Softcore : La masajista vocacional , Historia de S , Climax , Secretos de alcoba , Cristina y la reconversion sexual and directed a terror film as ¨The monk¨, his last movie . His best film was a Giallo : ¨La mansion bajo la niebla¨ or ¨Scream¨, it is his first and the best one, directed along with the prolific filmmaker Pedro Lazaga . Rating : 5.5/10 .
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed