5/10
Meandering film that isn't sure what it wants to be
3 January 2013
This film is about an annoying, pampered artist who has women issues. He has a deeply-set, unresolved trauma about his dead mother. His rich publisher father has a young trophy wife whom he has an unhealthy antagonistic relationship with but that's nothing compared to the stalkerish obsession he fosters upon her friend Carol.

Your Hands On My Body is a somewhat confused psychological drama. Its story is way less complicated than it feels. The narrative is told in a manner that ensures that it's a little bit difficult to follow at times. This may be because it is sloppily constructed but it could also be because it isn't particularly interesting a lot of the time and it's not always easy to keep full concentration on proceedings. I think part of the problem with this one is that it doesn't really know what it wants to be. It can't seem to decide if it's an art film or a genre picture, so it ends up falling between the two. This is usually not a problem, indeed many of the best cult movies exist in this grey area. But this one is too silly to be believable, yet too arty to be pure pulp fiction, while never being arty or pulpy enough to satisfy. It does have some bizarre moments though and these are ultimately what I would suggest watching this one for.

It stars Lino Capolicchio who will be familiar to giallo fans for his turns in two excellent entries in that sub-genre - The House with Laughing Windows (1976) and The Bloodstained Shadow (1978). He does play awkward very well and this acting style suited his roles in those gialli. Unfortunately, in this movie he plays a character less endearingly nerdy and more creepy. As a result he isn't nearly as engaging and I suppose this is part of the problem with the film as a whole. Your Hands On My Body is not without interest but is essentially for Italian cult cinema die-hards only.
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