Let's be realistic.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

An overweight teenage girl (Lara Wendel) walks in on her slutty mother (Stephania Sandrelli) having a three-way (right after the daughter's birthday party). She later confronts her mother and gets her birthday cake shoved in her face. She then tries to commit suicide, but survives and loses a lot of weight. Now attractive to boys and men for the first time, she turns into a world-class tease, manipulating a smitten boy her age (so she can rob his parent's house), her mother's middle-age jerk of boyfriend, an older would-be revolutionary, and his sinister contact. It all ends in tears and some rather unbelievable melodrama.The main strength of this movie is the two female leads. The strikingly beautiful Sandrelli started in Italian films when she herself was teenager, appearing in two classics, "Divorce, Italian Style" and "Seduced and Abandoned". As she approached middle-age Sandrelli took on another career of "sexy mama" roles most notably in Tinto Brass' "The Key", but also "Jamon, Jamon" (where she played Penelope Cruz's mother) and Lina Wertmueller's "The Nymph". Lara Wendel is kind of the Italian version of Linda Blair having played the Linda Blair role in "Ring of Darkness", perhaps the most ridiculous of many ridiculous Italian "Exorcist"/"The Omen" knock-offs. She went on to do horror films for Dario Argento ("Tenebrae"), Joe D'Amato ("Killing Birds"), and Umberto Lenzi ("Ghosthouse"), and she'd started her career playing the young Mimsy Farmer in the creepy horror/giallo "Perfume of the Lady in Black". But as the result of her notorious second film, Wendel also became a rather unlikely sex star (although she seems to use a body double for some her more graphic scenes here). She is actually really good in this and even better in her subsequent film "Ernesto" (where she plays male and female twins). She was really somewhat of a wasted talent in the blood-soaked, sex-crazed Italian cinema of the time.I know little about the director, but his movie kind of reminds of a Catherine Breillat film, but with French feminism replace by a more leering, Italian male sensibility. Not a great movie,but not terrible either.

Here you may see very well why some of us love Stefania Sandrelli—especially when she was young, her face had a special finesse—something exquisite and refined , she was such a delightful babe. In … her face still had that touch, that brim of enchanting youthful finesse.Desideria: La vita Interiore (1980) ends the '70s, discretely, on a middle note.Much of the '70s Italian cinema is, implicitly at least, a hedonist one, a firm, decided _enouncing of the pleasure.Hedonic cinema, uttering of a pure, undiluted pleasure, often on the verge of orgasm, and, of course, variously illustrated with more or less brio and flair by different directors and actors. And what's defining it's this—pleasure was the premise. They started from a background of orgasms. Stefania was as good a babe as any for this kind of things; later, Brass brought a grimmer note. As a matter of fact, the '80s were generally grimmer and angrier, grittier.In the '70s Stefania fooled around quite a lot. Amazing the people with her shapes—in The Conformist, Black Belly of the Tarantula, Where Are You Going on Holiday? ….Yet more, the babe was moving fast--The Conformist, where she's a rounded woman, is made one year after L'Amante Di Gramigna, where she still had that exquisite and lean childish shapes. And she undressed bravely.In DESIDERIA, end of the '70s, she's energetically pumped from behind; see that scene, at least. It's a scene of debauchery.

Gianni Barcelloni's 1980 tale of blackmail and deception stars the elegant and beautiful Stefania Sandrelli (The Conformist & 1900). Sandrelli portrays Viola, a rich socialite who adopts a child ("Desideria" portrayed by Lara Wendal) with an eating disorder. Desideria has many emotional issues growing up and becomes extremely withdrawn because of her weight, and to make matters worse she's subjected to her adoptive mothers open and blatant sexual escapades. One night she awakens to another one of her mother's sexual encounters. Realizing she can't sleep, she decides to get a midnight snack. Enroute to the kitchen she accidentally walks in on her mother and her boyfriend (Klaus Lowitsch) having sex on the living room floor. This outrages Viola who confronts her in the kitchen and humiliates her by shoving a cake in her face. So traumatized by the event Desideria attempts suicide. Viola becomes overwhelmed with guilt and encourages her daughter to lose weight. Desideria eventually sheds the weight (via therapy) and blossoms into a very beautiful young lady. Only the viewer discovers just how disturbed she really is when she starts to resemble her adoptive mothers personality. Like exploiting sex as a means of acquiring to maintain the materialistic life style she's accustomed to.Years pass only Desideria still suffers from the emotional issues that would plague someone who wonders why she was let go for adoption. That, coupled with her mothers outrages behavior in the past that still haunts her in the present. Even the family maid tries to take advantage of Desideria's emotional instability by forcing a sexual encounter with her (at the request of her mother's boyfriend) while shopping. Desideria decides she's had enough and fights back through blackmailing her mother's boyfriend, who eventually pays her off. She uses the money she acquires and confronts the maid who directs her to a guy she knows that will get rid of her mother's boyfriend (for a price) via murder for hire. The alleged hit-man complicates matters by falling in love with Viola. But still wanting to help Desideria with her problem he hires another hit-man to finish the job. What follows is even more lies on top of more blackmail as Desideria becomes the victim of a twisted and tangled web of deception, resulting in a powerful ending. Not the best transfer to DVD but still a very watchable movie as any film would be that features Italian film star Stefania Sandrelli. As usual, Sandrelli manages to steal every scene she's in. Whats unfortunate here is, she's not nearly in it enough.olofpalme63

"Desideria" Starring Stefania Sandrelli, Lara Wendel, Klaus Löwitsch. Italian language, with no English subtitles is this version I viewed. A heavy set, 15-year-old girl named Desideria (Lara Wendel) is ridiculed by her adoptive mother to the point where she attempts suicide. While recovering in the hospital, Desideria (Lara Wendel) loses weight as well as her love and respect for her mommy. Upon her release Desideria exacts her revenge on those who have hurt her. Lara bares it all in this very rare European cult classic. A must have for fans of Lara Wendel, it will also appeal to fans of Eva Ionesco and David Hamilton style of movies. This was emotional for me because I to was overweight and I think Lara's acting brought these feeling I felt to the surface so the eye could grasp that feeling. I won't mention Lara Wendel is built like a brick out house nor will I mention I think she is beautiful in looks nude or clothed as well as being a fine actress. My humble opinion is one should own this movie if you can find it, I truly hope this movie will do a come back so it will be available for another generation to enjoy, nuff said.Purview