Sesso nero (literally: "Black sex"; internationally: Sexy Erotic Love; United States DVD release: Exotic Malice) is a 1980 Italian adult drama film starring Mark Shannon, Annj Goren, Lucia Ramirez, and George Eastman, who also wrote the screenplay. It was produced, directed and photographed by Joe D'Amato.
The film is most notable for being the first Italian hardcore pornographic film to be shown in Italian theatres, and one in a series of four hardcore pornographic films D'Amato shot back-to-back in the second half of 1979 in the Dominican Republic, the others being the porn/horror crossover films Erotic Nights of the Living Dead and Porno Holocaust, and the pornographic thriller Hard Sensation. Although Sesso Nero was the last one of these films to be shot, it was the first to be distributed and shown in Italian theatres.
The film is also notable for its thematic richness unusual for the genre, including the theme of illness, voodoo haunting, and the final gory scene of self-castration. It has been called the best film of early Italian hardcore film production by experts on the subject and has become a cult film.
Contents
Plot
New York businessman Mark Lester is diagnosed with a hypertrophy of the prostate requiring surgery in two weeks according to his doctor, who hands him a syringe and medication against the pain. Mark does not to tell his wife, deciding to use the time to return to Santo Domingo, where 12 years ago he met Maira, the woman of his life.
At the island airport, Mark meets his old friend Jacques who has reserved a room for him at the Sheraton. Jacques tells Mark that Maira really loved him and would have followed him but was too poor to do so. When Maira disappeared, her father, an old voodoo magician, left his house to stay at Boca de Yuma, a wild place at the other side of the island, together with his little daughter.
While Mark is dreaming of his upcoming surgery in his room, a hotel maid masturbates, looking at his exposed penis. When he wakes up, he has sex with her. In a call home, he learns his wife is drunk. Later, walking the streets, he sees Maira's reflection in a shopping window, looking at him. She appears unchanged by time.
At Jacques', Mark meets Lucia, whom Jacques rescued from prostitution when she was 15. Lucia had the idea of founding a school, but they need funding. In Jacques' absence, Mark says he is nauseated by their kindness, talks about perhaps providing the funding himself, and asks Lucia to do as she did with 15. Disgusted, she performs oral sex on him "for Jacques". Later, Mark is in genital pain, and Jacques accompanies him to the hotel, where Mark injects himself with the painkiller. Jacques tells him to stay away from himself and Lucia.
In the streets, Mark spots Maira again. She addresses him, saying it was his return that makes her appearance possible. When Mark is forced to grope his groin in pain, she vanishes. At night, Mark meets his friend Voyakis, now owner of a successful nightclub. Mark tells him about once seeing a voodoo magician performing a strange rite after a car accident: He collected the soul in a bottle, and people said that if he opened it again, the soul would return again. Watching the gay dancer and his female partner dance to the music of "Sexy Night", Mark hallucinates her being Maira and experiences another fit of genital pain.
The next day, he goes to Boca di Yuma and meets Maira's father at the beach. He tells him that he collected her last breath in the bottle. She carried his name on her lips, cursing him. He also tells him he will never leave and that his illness will become stronger until he dies. She will not let him leave, and he will stay forever. When Mark asks him whether she is alive, he tells him she died long ago, but that for him she is alive until he too will live. In his glass bottle, he keeps her soul so that no evil spirit can disturb her eternal sleep.
Cast
Mark Shannon as Mark Lester
Annj Goren as Maira and her younger sister
George Eastman as Voyakis
Uncredited:
Lucia Ramirez as Lucia
George Du Bren as Jacques De La Penne
Chantal Kubel as chambermaid at the hotel
Lola Burdan as Liza Lester, Mark's wife
Lanfranco Spinola as Paul, the doctor
Sandy Samuel as dancer at Voyakis' restaurant
Fernando Arcangeli as dancer
Erminio Bianchi Fasani as customer at Voyakis' restaurant
Pino Marocco as customer at Voyakis' restaurant
Bruno Alias as customer at Voyakis' restaurant
Production
Sesso nero was the last of nine films D'Amato shot in the Dominican Republic in 1978 and 1979. The idea for the film came from George Eastman, who after losing all his money to gambling proposed to D'Amato to write the story and screenplay of a film in a single day, in exchange for a million lire. D'Amato accepted the proposal since the actors, the technicians and the locations of the previous films were still in place and ready to use.
In the official documentation, it is recorded that the production company changed from Fulvia Cin.ca to P.C.M. during the shoot, the latter being Produzioni Cinematografiche Massaccesi, the company founded by D'Amato, for whom this was the first of many films he produced on his own. Actor and screenwriter George Eastman remembers that the budget was 20 million lire.
Shooting began on November 12, 1979. The working titles were Amore ai tropici (literally: "Love in the tropics") and Much more. The film was shot on location in and around Santo Domingo.
Release
Censorship
The film was first presented to the board of censorship on March 12, 1980 under its title Much more, but was subsequently withdrawn and presented again under its definitive title Sesso nero, under which it passed on May 30, 1980. No cuts were imposed.
Theatrical releases
In Italy, the film premiered at the cinema "Torino" in Turin on July 1, 1980, in Milan on July 18, and in Rome on July 30. The film's gross was 54.122.000 lire with 21.670 spectators in 8 cities and 62 days. In France, the film passed the board on October 2, 1980 and was distributed to Parisian cinemas in May 1981 under the title Exotic love. In Spain, it passed on March 7, 1984 and was shown in May 1984 to 55.585 spectators under the title Sexo negro.
Home video
In Italy, the film was released in a softcore version as Foemina (La femmina) by "Golden video" and "Broadcast", and hardcore as Sesso nero by "Cinevideosud" and "Shendene & Moizzi". On DVD, the hardcore version was released by "Stormovie". In Germany, the film's hardcore version was released on VHS by "Benra Kg" and on DVD as Orgasmo nero III. Schwarze Haut auf weißem Sand by "X-rated". In Greece, a shortened softcore version was released on DVD under the title Mavra kormia stin leuki ammo. In the United States, the hardcore version was released by "One 7 Movies" under the title Exotic Malice.
Reception
For Mondo Digital in 2011, Sesso nero "can't be classified as a traditional porn film since it clearly doesn't have the traditional raincoat brigade in mind".
In their exhaustive 2014 monograph on early Italian hardcore film production (1980-1984), Andrea Napoli and Franco Grattarola both agreed that Sesso nero was the best and most beautiful film of the Italian "Golden Age" of adult filmmaking.