27/04/2009

“Nymphomania does not exist: it is something men invented to control female desire,” says Geraldine Chaplin in Diary of a Sex Addict [+see also:
trailer
film profile], but the theory behind the words comes from Valérie Tasso, author of the controversial book that director Christian Molina adapted for the screen. The film is being released by MediaFilm on 90 screens on April 30.

Produced by Spain’s Canonigo and Filmax, Valérie is played by Belèn Fabra, who brings to live autobiographical episodes of the writer’s life, marked by an unrestrained sexual appetite. In the film, the main character goes from a compulsive and uncontrollable desire, with strangers even, to a period of monogamy during which she lives with a man who turns out to be violent, however; to “voluntary” prostitution and, ultimately, total self-awareness.

"What disturbs people,” said Tasso after the film’s press screening in Rome, “is that here the prevailing socials roles are inverted: the woman goes from being an object of desire to a desiring subject. I’d like to proselytise about individual freedom and make people understand that sex is a value, not a problem”.

Halfway between Melissa P. and Emmanuelle, the film leaves little to the imagination. Not even the film’s poster, of a woman holding a pair of panties and which with the title sparked censorship problems first in Madrid, where the film was released last October, and now in Italy.

"They asked us to the remove the word nymphomania from the poster and the problem would have been resolved,” said Tommaso Tabarelli, director of marketing at MediaFilm. "For now the film will be released without the poster, which won’t be exhibited even outside the cinemas the film is scheduled to play.”