The Alcove

Severin Films

R1 DVD

Joe D’Amato may be known as the king of sleaze but The Alcove is a refined sort of sleaze. Erotic, sensual and explicit, it is marked by an excellent plot, lots of character development and excellent cinematography. It is a film that divides fans due to its slavery based plot, but when this is taken in context it actually becomes a superb example of D’Amato’s ability to make refined eroticism with intriguing subtexts and many historians of erotica believe this is D’Amato’s best work.

There is actually a lot to think about behind the “heat” in this movie. The film juxtaposes the supposed “naturalism” of the sex life of the African slave/princess with the staid and somewhat suppressed sexuality of the white man and ends up presently a rather textured work of erotic cinema.

The film is set during the 1940’s when Italy made its foray into Africa. Al Cliver plays Elio, a well to do trader and soldier who after winning a bloody battle in Africa is required to take the Abyssinian princess Zerbal as part of the booty. Not that he seems to mind too much, the princess is played by the beautiful Laura Gemser.

Elio returns home to write his memoirs to find his home life is rather complicated. His wife Allesandra is insatiable and having a lesbian affair with his secretary. Zerbal carefully manipulates the tension between them all and works her way into Allessandra’s bed deliberately encouraging the jealousies that are triggered. As Zerbal controls Allesandras desires, she is able to plan her revenge against Elio who brought about the death of her brother and brought her to Italy as a slave.

This is an impressively intelligent work of eroticism. The character development is superior with a fascinating interplay between Elio, Allesandra, Zerbal, his secretary and the gardener. The way in which desire is manipulated as a form of power and domination gives the film an unusual texture and is matched with excellent dialogue, superb sets and seductive cinematography. A sub plot about making stag films adds to the tale as does discussion of the obvious racism of Italy’s incursion into Africa.

At the same time this is a D’Amato film and it is filled with sensuality, nudity, lesbian lovemaking, voyeurism, drug use and more. All the women are beautiful and sexuality is explicit throughout the film. There are all sorts of erotic scenes set in all manner of unusual contexts, the nastiest scene being a faux inquisition nun scene which Elio creates (but Zerbal manipulates) for his stag film.

Severin has done an excellent job by presenting a totally uncut and uncensored edition of the film, it is very clear with an excellent score by Manuel De Sica. The major extra is “Talking Dirty with Joe D’Amato, a rare extended interview with D’Amato from the mid Nineties.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No.2 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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