Love Strange Love
Love Strange Love
| 07 July 1982 (USA)
Love Strange Love Trailers

A man remembers forty-eight crucial hours in his life when, as a child, he visited his mother, the favorite woman of an important politician, in a bordello owned by him, right before some important political changes in 1937 Brazil. In those hours, he discovers his own sexuality.

Reviews
IslandGuru Who payed the critics
Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.
Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.
Jerry This is a very rare movie, but quite a gem so if you can get your hands on a copy, don't let it go. If you were a young boy who had a confusing sexual education and early experiences, you will understand it well and be in touch with the story. The movie is boring much of the time, but occasional touching fantasy scenes keep you interested. And it is an absolute must for Xuxa fans, one of only a few of her English language performances. She plays a brothel prostitute hired for a party to entertain a wealthy diplomat. She also seduces a 13 (I assume) year old boy who is visiting his mother at the brothel. The other women there also take their shot at enticing him, mostly by flashing their nakedness. However, he shows no interest in them.
lazarillo This Brazilian movie somewhat resembles the soapy, exploitative Brazilian "pornochachada" films of its era, but is a much more serious and arty (and pretentious) period film. The fairly serious plot is certainly not helped by the atrocious English dubbing of the existing VHS version, but the bigger problem is that the whole movie is even more laughably implausible than even the wildest, most out-there "pornochadas" I've seen.The film is told in flashback as a fifty-something man remembers a brief period during WWII where he came to visit an upscale brothel managed by his mother. As political intrigue swirls both inside and outside the brothel, the twelve-year-old protagonist is seduced by no less than three of the prostitutes. The serious historical intrigue notwithstanding, it's very hard to buy (even in Brazil)that adult women working daily in the sex trade could not resist bedding a boy whose testicles probably haven't dropped yet. Obviously, the sex scenes between the nude adult women and the partially nude adolescent boy were (and still would be) considered controversial, but I think this movie is much less guilty of exploiting the adolescent male body than it is of exploiting the adolescent male fantasies that most adult males still vividly recall. (Besides if you're really looking at the twelve-year-old actor in the presence of all these voluptuous Brazilian women, I think it says a lot more about you than it does the movie).As other reviews have mentioned, one of the prostitutes here is played Xuxa Menghel who went on to become a pretty big celebrity singer (and kiddie TV host!) in Brazil. She may indeed be the reason this rattling skeleton in her closet does not seemingly exist in any version with its native language. Still, she is undeniably sexy whether stripping out of a ridiculous bear costume or rubbing her naked self against the barely pubescent protagonist. She and some of the other women (including "pornochchada" regular Vanessa Alves)are really the only thing this overly serious, and at the same time, laughably ridiculous movie really has going for it.
celco74 I understand that this movie was made in a time where life was not running at a pace as fast as it is now; but even with this in mind it is just boring.especially the director's obsession with blue eyes staring out of frozen faces in closeup is getting pretty annoying after some time. cut out all these "blue eyes staring" scenes and the length would probably get down to about 1.5 hours (instead of the actual 2 hours), making it more bearable.also most of the dialogs are just unsatisfying and simple.not being from brasil I don't get the point about xuxa, but her beauty and nakedness (together vera fischer and with all the other nude girls) at least accounts for a few points in my rating.
lawrence-johnson Not expecting anything deep, I enjoyed this movie as something to relax with. While there was plenty of gratuitous nudity, there was enough of a plot and interesting characters to keep me interested. My favorite scene was Xuxa's striptease.