''Desiderando Giulia'', internationally released as ''Desiring Julia'', is a 1986 Italian

erotic Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sculp ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

directed by Andrea Barzini. It is loosely based on the 1898 novel ''

Senilità ''Senilità'', translated into English as ''As a Man Grows Older'' or ''Emilio's Carnival'', is Italo Svevo's second novel, first published in 1898. The novel's protagonist is Emilio Brentani, a failed writer torn between his longing for love an ...

'' by

Italo Svevo Aron Hector Schmitz (19 December 186113 September 1928), better known by the pseudonym Italo Svevo (), was an Italian and Austro-Hungarian writer, businessman, novelist, playwright, and short story writer. A close friend of Irish novelist and ...

Plot

Emilio, an unsuccessful writer, lives in a comfortable apartment in Rome with his older sister Amalia. In a theatre he sees a mysterious woman and, following her into the wardrobe room, they make love. She is Giulia, who lives in Ostia and is trying to make a career as a photographic model. Following a disordered life, including many men, she has little appetite for an affair with Emilio, whose interest in her is obsessive, but does meet him from time to time and they make love. Amalia is jealous of Emilio's infatuation and, when a younger and more successful writer called Stefano visits the apartment, starts an affair with him. Emilio is outraged that his sister is having wild sex under his roof and breaks up the romance. As his eyes slowly open to the true nature of Giulia and the people she mixes with, he decides to transform her into the person he wants her to be but this project, as could have been predicted, fails. His sister, deprived of her brother's affection and her one chance of love, commits suicide.

Cast

Serena Grandi Serena Faggioli (Bologna, 23 March 1958), known professionally as Serena Grandi, is an Italian actress, famous as a sex symbol in Cinema of Italy, Italian cinema of the 1980s and 1990s. She was a popular pin-up model in Italy. During her film car ...

: Giulia * Johan Leysen: Emilio *

Valeria D'Obici Valeria D'Obici (born 17 April 1944) is an Italian film, stage and television actress. Life and career Born in Lerici, D'Obici studied at the drama school of the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, and made her professional debut at the same theatre. Be ...

: Amalia *

Sergio Rubini Sergio Rubini (born 21 December 1959) is an Italian actor, film director and screenwriter. Life and career Rubini was born in Grumo Appula, Apulia, but soon moved to Rome to study acting. After some roles in theatre, he debuted in a feature f ...

: Stefano * Massimo Sarchielli *

Giuliana Calandra Giuliana Calandra (10 February 1936 – 25 November 2018) was an Italian film, television and stage actress, journalist and television hostess. Life and career Born in Moncalieri, Giuliana Calandra debuted in 1963 Pier Paolo Pasolini's '' La ...

References

External links

* 1986 films 1980s erotic drama films 1980s erotic thriller films 1980s Italian-language films Italian erotic drama films Italian erotic thriller films 1980s Italian films {{erotic-film-stub