Martin Oaks
@martinrobles
**To eat evenly** The prolific local actor Alessandro Perrella, also known as Alex Perry, made the jump to directing in 1989, right at the tail end of the Golden Age of adult cinema. His vast knowledge of B-movies and independent film led him to successfully direct a couple of back-to-back projects in 1995 titled "Betty Blue." Both installments were shot digitally, yet their staging and narrative flair were much more reminiscent of the celluloid era. The subsequent Italian dubbing—of a film that was already Italian to begin with—came about because the sound crew was left out of the final budget. This resulted in an absolute trainwreck where the dialogue barely aligns with the actors' performances—all of whom were Italian, of course, including the well-known performer Anita Rinaldi, who shows great commitment to the role. One might wonder: "But does dialogue even matter in this genre?" The answer is a resounding yes. Because "Betty Blue" is a hidden gem where the plot delivers a mix of provocative storytelling and mystery. Let’s look at how it pulls off this magic: Betty (Elisabeth) Hutton—alias "Betty Blue" in her literary projects—is an up-and-coming novelist trapped in a creative rut. She is being pressured by her editor, with whom she is having an affair, creating a toxic relationship that she decides to escape. When Betty visits her best friend, Giovanna, at her boarding school, she learns that Giovanna's father—a wealthy Florentine marquis—has just passed away. Since Giovanna’s relationship with her family has been cold for a decade, she asks Betty to attend the family gathering and pass herself off as her. Given their physical resemblance and the passage of time, she could easily pull it off. Amid sexual encounters with the staff, "adulterous" flirtations with the family, abundant anal sex, and generous facial ejaculations, Betty comfortably settles into the mansion, only to discover that the old marquis might have been the victim of a criminal conspiracy to seize his legacy. Her mission will force her to pull up her panties and get down to business to solve a murder case that could very well become the plot of a future novel.
