Wonderful character development!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

This film was released on NTSC VHS videotape in North America by Sovicom Distribution in 1989 with the French title..... LES PLAISIRS INTERDITS....It had a small distribution in Quebec and the French speaking areas of Eastern Canada and the northeastern USA......It was released in French Language with no English Subtitles.....It is no longer In Print and is rarely seen in French Canadian video stores.....the Ex-Rentals are generally poor quality and and the original tape has often been replaced........It was released with a French language jacket with a picture of Monica Guerritore on the front and three stills from the film on the back of the jacket......Directed by Salvatore Samperi and stars Monica Guerritore, Lorenzo Lena, Saverio Vallone ....the run time of the North American release is 1 hour 32 minutes............Contains extensive nudity........."The complex relationship between Patrizia, a beautiful successful fashion-designer (Monica Guerritore) and her brother, (Lorenzo Lena) an introvert, hypochondriacal youth, who spends his days watching TV ....Patrizia's brother talks her into a series of adventures which he likes to photograph, she in turn talks to him about her sexual history......"

Don't be fooled by the promos. This is just another pretty, formulaic exercise in voyeuristic (but not erotic) Italian soap operatics. Like so many in this line, it pretends to negotiate a daring theme, while providing enough symbolism and eye candy to make it seem superficially profound. The leading lady plays it straight, but Samperi couldn't even make Laura Antonelli erotic.

i watched this in english as the 'dark side of love'.both the dubbing and the sleeve conceal the (crucial) information that the lead female and male characters are brother and sister, referring to patrizia as a 'governess'.while not a great film (some of the setting is lazy and a few of the scenes use nudity to cover for slack characterisation) it is a film with several near unique virtues.the sub-incest theme is not handled pruriently, instead the reticence of the two lead characters pushes them towards a talked flirtation (patrizia's brother talks her into a series of sexual adventures, she in turn talks to him about her sexual history).adding a clearly imaginary dimension to a straight skin-flick produces something a lot richer than either would have been on its own.definitely a must watch, if only for the way it makes you re-evaluate your response to so many other erotic movies

A wonderfully photographed erotic fairytale. A succesful woman and her younger-teenage brother. A love that can never be exposed or fulfilled... The film is a journey through forbidden emotions and desires. Definitely a film-to-watch for all the fans of erotic cinema...