Made as iconic director/cinematographer Joe D’Amato was approaching the end of his prolific career (and yet, with another 97 adult-oriented films to go), Provocation / Provocazione is basically softcore adult masquerading as erotica, with long sex sequences lacking the graphic intercourse details D’Amato was well-experienced with in his hardcore efforts.
The countryside location – an old inn made of quarried stone – adds the right rustic atmosphere in this familiar tale of an innkeeper’s wife (Fabrizia Flanders) who fancies a visiting businessman (Lyle Lovett lookalike Antonio Ascani, aka “Tony Roberts”), while her husband Gianni Demartiis) goes after his cousin (Erika Savastani), set to live at the house after the recent death of her papa. An idiot nephew (Lindo Damiani) indulges in some masturbatory voyeurism by sneaking around the house without his shoes and peering through floor cracks at everyone else’s fun time.
The characters are flat, D’Amato’s directorial style can’t craft any sense of humour beyond exchanges of berating insults (most inflicted on the nephew), and the performances vary in quality; the older actors fare the best, whereas Ascani seems very uncomfortable (maybe it’s the ill-fitting, wrinkled up linen suit), and Savastani’s healthy figure can’t mask her complete lack of talent.
D’Amato also slaps on stock music, and repeats the same cheesy early eighties muzak over sex scenes, and the film isn’t particularly well lit – perhaps a sign that his years in porn made him lazy after filming some very stylish ‘scope productions (such as the blazingly colourful L’Anticristo).
D’Amato’s efforts to make something more upscale isn’t a failure – there’s more than enough nudity to keep fans happy – and one can argue he was still capable of making a slick commercial product after going bonkers with sex, blood, and animals in his most notorious efforts. The photography and editing have a basic classical style, but there’s no energy in the film, making Provocation a work best-suited for D’Amato fans and completists.
Mya’s DVD comes from a decent PAL-NTSC conversion, although there’s some flickering in the opening titles. The details are sharp, the colours stable, but there lighting is rather harsh, as though the transfer was made from a high contrast print. (The film’s titles, Italian at the beginning, and English at the end - “The story, all names, characters and incidentals portrayed in this production, are fictitius” - are also video-based, indicating Provocation was meant as product for video rental shelves.)
Besides English and Italian dub tracks, there are no extras, which is a shame, given something could’ve been written about the product and its cast, many of whom were pinched by D’Amato from prior Tinto Brass productions. Savastani had just appeared as a bit player in Brass’ The Voyeur / L'Uomo che guarda (1994), and would move on with co-star Demartiis to Fermo posta Tinto Brass / P.O. Box Tinto Brass (1995) and Senso ’45 / Black Angel (2002).
© 2009 Mark R. Hasan
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Mafia Boss: My Husband
Today’s mafia wife might be laundering money through a cryptocurrency exchange or ordering hits via encrypted messaging apps. She no longer just “looks the other way”; she pulls the trigger. However, this power is not liberation. It is merely an extension of the cage. She is now facing the same life sentence—just with a sharper heel. The phrase “my husband, the mafia boss” is never a boast. It is a confession. It is the story of a woman who traded her autonomy for a false sense of security. She lives in a world where love is indistinguishable from control, where loyalty is enforced by the barrel of a gun, and where the only true exit is a coffin, a prison cell, or a new name in a bland suburban duplex in a town she never chose.
By Elena V. Conti, Sociology of Organized Crime Contributor my husband mafia boss
But as former affiliates, witnesses, and criminologists will attest, the reality is far darker. To be “my husband, the mafia boss” is to live in a gilded cage, where the bars are made of silence, fear, and a brutal, unspoken contract. This article delves into the three distinct phases of that marriage: the seduction, the reign, and the aftermath. The myth begins with a rescue. In countless testimonies, women describe meeting their future husband not as a criminal, but as a protector. He is the man on the corner who makes the creeps disappear. He pays for a stranger’s funeral. He ensures the grandmother’s rent is covered. Today’s mafia wife might be laundering money through |
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