Review of Swept Away

Introduction

A young and spoilt woman continually berates her staff on an exclusive yacht in the Mediterranean. Talking constantly about politics she takes particular exception to Gennarino who she claims is a communist.

After getting split up from the main party they eventually find a deserted island and must make their home there until someone rescues them.

At first Gennarino is rude and callous towards Rafaella. Then he hits her until she bows to his will and `falls in love with him`. Much of the film is taken up by this exploration of the relationship.

Trivia points:
Despite spending several weeks on the island Rafaella`s makeup including eyeliner stays intact so no points at all for realism.

Giancarlo Giannini recently appeared with Denzel Washington in Man on Fire .

Video

Made in 1974 and it shows by the quality of the picture. This has a lot of faults and marks on the print.

Audio

This film has a truly appalling soundtrack. It is a sort of euro-trash musac that really grates on your nerves after about 5 seconds.

Features

Niente-thank goodness.

Conclusion

No doubt made as a sophisticated attack on society where the poor get screwed by the rich this film with its verbal diatribes followed by a quite implausible development on the desert island is unbelievably bad.

Even before it starts the credits run on and on along with the vomit inducing music. Then when Mariangelo Melato (Rafaella) starts to speak it gets worse.

The `loving relationship` that develops between the couple on the island is based on abuse. The constant stream of verbal abuse from Rafaella at first and the physical abuse from Gennarino is unwatchable. It doesn`t help that this is an Italian film which has English subtitles.

I assume this film has been released because of the 2002 remake with Madonna, which was slated by the critics. Frankly it`s hard to see how Madonna could be worse.