Narrating the extra-marital adventures of Luciano, a middle-class dentist, and Marcelo, a wealthy businessman, who renew their curious friendship after a lengthy hiatus, Invitation to Pleasure is a not-so-distant sister piece to Walter Hugo Khouri’s better-known 1960s films about alienated big city dwellers.
Touching on similar existential dread - this time largely through the lens of pathologically sex-obsessed white males - Luciano leeches off Marcelo, whose luxurious lifestyle attracts a vast array of beautiful women. Parallel to this, the men’s wives - Anita and Ana - contemplate a radical course of action in the light of their husbands’ betrayals.
Drawing from Antonioni and Bergman, while also folding in uniquely Brazilian themes, Invitation to Pleasure is a complex look at the male psyche, underlining ambivalence even as it relishes the exquisite physiques of its Boca starlets.
- Director
- Walter Hugo Khouri
- Country of production
- Brazil
- Year
- 1980
- Festival Edition
- IFFR 2012
- Length
- 109'
- Medium
- HDcam
- International title
- Invitation to Pleasure
- Languages
- Portuguese, English
- Producer
- Antonio Galante
- Production Companies
- Galante Filmes Ltda, W.H.K.Cinema
- Sales
- Galante Filmes Ltda
- Screenplay
- Walter Hugo Khouri
- Cinematography
- Antonio Meliande
- Editor
- Gilberto Wagner
- Production Design
- Campelo Neto
- Music
- Rogerio Duprat
- Cast
- Roberto Maya, Helena Ramos