A wealthy Italian household is turned upside down when a handsome stranger arrives, seduces every family member and then disappears. Each has an epiphany of sorts, but none can figure out who the seductive visitor was or why he came.
What would be pretentious and strained in the hands of most directors, with Pasolini takes on an intense air of magical revelation.
– ,
Time Out,
9 Feb 2006
fresh:
Apart from his final feature, Salo, this is probably Pier Paolo Pasolini's most controversial film, and to my mind one of his very best.
– Jonathan Rosenbaum,
Chicago Reader,
1 Jan 2000
fresh:
I don't feel ready to write about this mysterious film; perhaps, a week from now, I'll decide it is very bad, a failure. But perhaps it is the most brilliant work yet by that strange director, Pier Paolo Pasolini.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
23 Oct 2004
fresh:
The movie itself is the message, a series of cool, beautiful, often enigmatic scenes that flow one into another with the rhythm of blank verse.
– Vincent Canby,
New York Times,
9 May 2005
fresh:
The narrative, almost silent in the first half, is unusually clear for a film by Pasolini. Performance by all members of the cast are praiseworthy, though Stamp dominates the first half and Betti, the second.