Forget
the lurid sex. Clearly, the most fun anyone had on this film was during the
location scouting. Somehow, they were able to shoot exteriors at Sacra di San
Michele and interiors at what looks like the Palace of Venaria and the Villa
della Regina. One would think such places would have some pretty rigorous
permit processes, but somehow an S&M horror movie gained entrée. The sex
and violence are the same old same old, but the locations are pretty awesome in
Craig Goodwill’s English-language, Italian-produced Compulsion (trailer
here),
which screens today at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto, as part of the Italian Contemporary Film Festival.
This
is Sadie Glass. You will be seeing a lot of her naked. She barely survived the weird
games her former lover Alex liked to play, but she used the experience to pen
her thinly veiled autobiographical first novel. True blue Thierry is the right
man for her, but he doesn’t always come through at crunch time, so when Alex
crashes her book party (a bizarrely dressy event for a Fifty Shades potboiler, at what looks like the Palazzo Madama), she
lights off with him, back into the seamy underside of Turin nightlife.
It
turns out Alex is staying at his business partner’s boffo villa, where he will
be hosting one of his notorious parties over the weekend. Naturally, he wants Glass
to attend, but he gets a bonus when she invites erotic dancer Francesca along
on a whim. Everything is cool when they are just doing their Skinimax thing,
but as soon as the party starts, the vibe turns creepy. Glass gets woozy,
starts losing time, and has visions of ritualistic killings. Everything is a game
Alex tells her, but the blood stains she finds the next morning suggest
otherwise.
It
still just boggles the mind that a bodice-ripper-and-slasher like this could
shoot in such grand venues. Essentially, the tone is a lot like Eyes Wide Shut, but with the liberal addition
of overt horror elements and far less symbolically charged subtext. Jakob
Cedergren is a classy actor in respectable, crossover Scandinavian films like Across the Water, Guilty, and Terribly Happy, so it is quite
surprising to see him playing (credibly enough) the smarmy Alex. We feel bad
for Analeigh Tipton, because the film often leaves her hanging out there, naked
and haggard-looking, in a really ugly and exploitative way. It is somewhat
kinder to Marta Gastini, who plays Francesca as a Holly Golightly from Hell. However,
Jan Bijvoet does right by the horror tradition with his scenery-chewing turn as
Minos, the cadaverous butler.
This
is a complete change of pace from Goodwill first film, the hit-or-miss
dystopian allegory Patch Town, but it
is far more derivative of prior works. Brian Clark’s screenplay is a rat’s nest
of weirdness and howlers, such as Glass’s practice of reading her final chapter
at all her publicity events, which any experienced author will tell you is the
best way to maximize sales. The film is a mess but the stunning backdrops often
serve as a welcome distraction. If you watch Compulsion, you will have a strong desire to visit the Piedmont
region, but you will probably never want to see it again. Not recommended, Compulsion screens tonight (6/16), as
part of ICFF in Toronto.
