see also
original title:
Melissa P.
directed by:
cast:
screenplay:
Luca Guadagnino, Barbara Alberti, Cristiana Farina, from the novel with the same title by Melissa Panarello
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
costume design:
music:
producer:
production:
Bess Movie, Pentagrama Films España (Madrid)
distribution:
country:
Italy/Spain
year:
2005
film run:
95'
format:
35mm - colour
release date:
18/11/2005
festivals & awards:
Melissa is a sweet, insecure sixteen year-old girl in Sicily. Her father is always away, and her mother, though affectionate, can understand what troubles her. One day Melissa discovers sex... a disaster. Where is the tenderness? Is it always so brutal and debasing? Melissa decides to find out for herself by having as many sexual experiences as possible, taking what some might consider a "path to deprivation". Instead it all becomes more real than before, and more painful. Melissa suffers, but she has no one to talk to, except for her paternal grandmother. And then the grandmother leaves her too. Alone and desperate, what will she do? Dash off towards self destruction? Saving herself from a nightmare that began a year earlier, in June, at the Villa of Daniele, her true love, who invited her to come swimming with some friends, but then led her to a secluded spot and forced her to...
From the novel "Cento colpi di spazzola prima di andare a dormire" by Melissa P.