Agostino 1962
1h 42min | Drama | 29 July 1963 (Sweden)
Storyline:
Agostino is a 13-year-old boy on vacation in Venice with his widowed mother. When a local stud seduces her, jealous Agostino joins a local group of juvenile delinquents out of protest. They force him to face his budding sexuality.
User review:
A radiant Ingrid Thulin escapes from Scandinavian gloom and into sunnier climes in this sensuous, if disturbing, erotic drama set in Venice. As the frivolous mother of a troubled teenage boy, she is a walking Oedipus complex in designer gowns (and a warm-up for more celebrated ‘monster mother’ roles in Night Games and The Damned). She dominates this film with her usual minimum of effort, no matter that she spends so much of it off-screen – in the arms of a dashing gigolo played by John Saxon.
How does her impressionable young son pass his time while Mummy is absent? Now we come to the secret of WHY this film is so totally obscure. (Even fans of Thulin, or of director Mauro Bolognini, barely seem to know it exists.) Wandering the desolate beaches of the Lido, the son falls in with a vagabond group of pubescent boys, ruled over by a mysterious older man whose attachment to them is…well, let’s just say that implications are everything, and Bolognini’s dreamily homoerotic photography of underage flesh would never pass scrutiny in our more knowing times.
For anybody who does not find its sexual subtext too off-putting, Agostino is an intelligent and handsomely photographed film. Its black-and-white views of Venice are as breathtaking as the later Technicolor visions of Visconti and Nicolas Roeg. If I can’t recommend it wholeheartedly, that’s because Bolognini (unlike, say, Louis Malle in the far superior Pretty Baby) does not seem entirely aware of the dilemmas raised by his own film.
At what age does human sexuality begin? At what age is it ethically acceptable for an artist to portray it? Such questions are rife in Agostino. The answers are nowhere to be found.
Director: Mauro Bolognini
Writers: Alberto Moravia (novel), Goffredo Parise
Stars: Paolo Colombo, Ingrid Thulin, John Saxon
Country: Italy
Language: Italian
Release Date: 29 July 1963 (Sweden)
Also Known As: Agouroi pothoi
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055730/
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4 / Version 2
File size : 962 MiB
Duration : 1 h 26 min
Overall bit rate : 1 558 kb/s
Excellent! I already have this movie, but the sound is faulty, so I am very pleased eventually to have the opportunity to watch it without any problems. Many thanks for uploading this gem. 🙂
My pleasure, my friend! 🙂
Is there a download link for this movie? I can’t seem to find it here…???
Thank you!
Download link added!
Agostino is the most powerful boyhood/COA movie of all time. An Italian classic. A Bolognini/Moravia/Ingrid Thulin collaboration- where they are oblivious to the sensational content they’ve created, and no conclusions about the movie are offered. Viewers can come up with several interpretations, which is fitting for a pubertal movie. The strong sensual undercurrent of an attractive boy (Paolo Colombo, in his only film) on the edge of sexuality electrifies the entire movie; inevitably inviting you to step into his role, is why the Vatican (bastards) seized the original film and all VHS copies, censoring it (for their lurid enjoyment?) for thirty-some years. About 12 years ago, some kind soul did the research, went to Rome, happened to locate one VHS tape = source material for every copy available today. Be aware, It’s a heavyweight european art film, deep and provocative, attention is required. Includes typical footage of Thulin leering at Agostino’s sculptured body- undressing in the Lido cabana. Unlimited male teen flesh, especially during the watermelon orgy, is still appalling (or arousing) today, 60 years later. Further Thulin woman-boy erotica can be found in “Night Games’, ‘Cuore di mamma’, and others- she’s the best there is, at pedo-mothering movie boys, of a certain age. Highly recommended, may require multiple viewings. B&W video quality alternates from barely acceptable at the beginning, to pretty good, for the duration.
The film, especially the soundtrack- is very dated, think of it as a museum piece.
Caution- if your movie diet consists of Hollywood fare, Agostino will bore you to tears.