Sleazy Pictures Muggy Archive: Bestialitá: Dog Lay Afternoon

Sep 1, 2016

Bestialitá: Dog Lay Afternoon

Borderline exploitation!

The time has come to take a look at Leonora Fani's sleaziest film of her career: Bestialitá (Bestiality) AKA Dog Lay Afternoon. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, bestiality means either sex between a person & an animal or a cruel and violent quality. In the case of today's film in review, it means the earlier. Yes, you read that right, a movie that features (simulated) sex between a person and an animal, in this case a dog. Disgusting, isn't it? If you're still with us, bare in mind cinema has relied on exploitative tricks since the dawn of time. Linda Lovelace, the world famous Deep Throat legendary porn star is said to have been forced to have sex with dogs many times. There are even some biographies stating she couldn't even bare to pronounce the word dog, replacing for its spelling d-o-g. If you're interested in reading more about this god awful paraphilia, there's a very interesting and serious article about it, written by Mish Barber Way here.

The SPAM-Alternative team is a group of sound minded people. In the past we have explained several times how we will never post any film related to illegal practices that go beyond the "it's only a movie" quote. We don't even support piracy. So, why is Dog Lay Afternoon still being reviewed after all this mumbo jumbo? Well, because the film doesnt' feature any actual scene of paraphilias of any kind. As a matter of fact, there are two scenes (the opening & the final scene) that deal with this serious matter in a very childish way that denotes clearly, it's a farce and no animals were harmed whatsoever. We love pets, we love dogs, we love everything that means doing no harm towards anybody or any animal, so rest assured, this film only uses the theme to gain more audiences throughA curiosity rather than shocking their viewers with, crap that goes beyond any sound mind idea. Still, that's why there's a warning message before accessing our blog, because it's meant to be visited by grown up adults who understand.

Witness of an act of bestiality.

Lusty tourists.

Setting explanations aside, Bestialitá is a 1976 Italian sexploitation directed by George Eastman (from Anthropohagus & Porno Holocaust fame) & Peter Skeri. The film premiered on November 16th in Italy and in 1977 in Turkey, Belgium and Spain. Obviously, it never premiered outside Europe due to censorship regulations that are more than needed at certain times. Although the film could have been internationally known as "Bestiality" distributors opted for "Dog Lay Afternoon" which clearly ripped off from Al Pacino's 1975 Dog Day Afternoon which has absolutely no resemblance with the earlier.

Anyways, the story begins with the perverted love relationship a married woman has with her dog. Unfortunately, her daughter Jeanine (Leonora Fani) witnesses the entire scene, and her father burns the house with the dog inside and take them out of there for good. Later, the movie changes its focus to a fifty something year old married couple that is visiting the island on vacation. Years have gone by, and the story of the woman & the dog ends up being an urban myth locals tell tourists to add some darkness to their vacation. For some reason beyond comprehension, Paul (Philippe March) gets interested in the story and every time he spots a mysterious girl and her dog, he somehow fantasizes about her being the urban myth. Yvette (Juliette Mayniel) who happens to bo Paul's wife, soon realizes there's a wandering young girl who seems to be unreachable to everyone, developing an interest on her too.

Ilona Staller is also in the movie.

Sunbathing in the nude.

Although publicized as a Leonora Fani film, her role isn't exactly the lead. Instead, the movie is told and seen through the eyes of the married couple touring the island (no exact location of the island is given during the movie).

The married couple is there for pure sex & entertainment. On the island they meet other tourists like them, and join in with them several times. Ilona Staller's unnamed character seems to be that of a prostitute hired by older men or interested in dating rich old men. Anyways, she barely gets a line on the film, all she does, is I presume, her best, getting naked and dancing while teasing some more old men. I've always wondered why she chose the porn industry instead of following a softcore career with more respectable fans. Even her appearance changed over the years as porn wasn't easy to shake off of her skin.

Jeanine & her dog.

Sunbathing pals.

So, anyways, after partying a lot, the married couple finally meets the mysterious girl who happened to have stolen Paul's photo camera. From then on, they befriend her and end up somewhat becoming a family spending days together in the sun. Paul & Yvette never had any children because they couldn't so, Jeanine seems to be the daughter they never had. Nevertheless, the sleazy factor can't possible allow us to picture them as a family because as soon as they're together, Jeanine & Yvette fuck each other on a daily basis until Paul is invited to join in for a threesome that will happen several times again.

Later, Jeanine sort of develops something that looks like an epilepsy condition that has her screaming and mumbling about her dog and her mother. Here's where the married couple is like "what the fuck is wrong with this girl?!". Although plot wise there isn't much explained on behalf of her condition, it's implied she became a nymphomaniac (a dated word I might add) because seeing her mother with a dog, traumatized her so hard, the only way she could cope with it was fucking random strangers every time tourist season began.

Hey, let's swim!

Hey! let's fuck!

Despite the fact Bestialitá is known as a must watch cult piece among film connoisseurs, the movie clearly doesn't live up to its hype, neither it survives as an entertaining sexploitation film. The only item that drives people into watching this flick, is obviously the heavily marketed (and luckily simulated) disgusting paraphilia scenes. The fact that Leonora Fani is in it, doesn't really mean much. Her role as a support character isn't nowhere as good as other support roles she's done in other films. The amount of nudity and/or sex scenes the film has is very little compared to her later works. Not even Ilona Staller has a lot of naked business in the film. As for the leads, well, they look too old for school and their nude scenes are meh!

So, is there any real artistic value in this film?

No, there isn't. I for one believe Leonora Fani wasn't that lucky when she began her film career. Most of the roles she was in were, well, basically an abused girl who ended up enjoying forced sex and, that clearly isn't something to be proud of. She had potential, and you can see it in Pensione Paura, Nene, Sensitivita and even in minor roles in The Last Round & The Private Lesson. To be fair, surviving the sleazy 70's film industry being an actress, was a beast of a burden only few could master. The sexploitation genre helped built the career of many European starlets but, on the other hand it closed doors for a more serious driven type of film genre. As a matter of fact, out of all the Italian starlets that raised to stardom in the 70's I believe Ornella Muti is the only one who enjoyed a satisfying career working in varied film genres.

a young Ilona Staller.

Your wife inviting you into a threesome? How can you say no to that?

By the time the movie reaches its climax, we're introduced to a private investigator that's been following Jeanine's case for quite some time. After Jeanine's shocking revelation, she leaves the couple and goes back to wherever she lives to sort of, re-arrange her life with her dog. Bestialitá has shocking all over, so by the time the grand finale comes, it is also revealed locals have been trying to find this mysterious girl in order to cure her off of her disease by killing her dog. Obviously, easier said than done, so once Jeanine accepts her perverted destiny, she decides it's time for her to take her mother's place in a disgusting legacy. Unfortunately for her, and this is pure presumption by myself, the one time she tries to do as her mother did, she's attacked & by her dog and hurt so bad, her screaming alerts the locals who ultimately kill her and her dog (there are no graphic scenes of the murder, only sounds and a few shots of the sea rocks whatsoever)

Overall, not Fani's best work by a long shot. Also, there's a lot of dialog that, had it not being for the Italian language & the English subtitles, I would have seriously thought this was a lame French art film. The Sexploitation value is very low. Sexploitation films are usually about comedy, murder, mystery, coming of age and even horror, Bestialitá is nothing but a fucking perverted publicity stunt with a few shocking twists that add up nothing to the overall feel of watching this movie. Only for Lenora Fani fans only. Faint of heart, stay away from it!