Love Strange Love (1982)

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Call me cynical, Narrow minded, whatever but this film is horrible in every sense. OK basically a twelve year old boy is sent by his grandmother to his mother who works and runs a big name bordello to press her for money. Being in this environment of course he gets a real education in the matters of sex. But at the end his final lesson is taught to him by dear old mom.Where do I start?? Oh yea why is this film around. I was completely floored at the ending. This twelve year old is in a sex scene with a grown woman...two different times! In those scenes that child was a grope away from this being child porn. Even the implication of such things like when he wet down he stomach and you see a big smile on her face...c'mon we all know what that means is wrong. This is abuse pure and simple.What floors me more than that is the fact that people seem to think this is OK. Saying " Oh its art". You can defecate in a dixe cup and someone will call it art that couldn't be motr true than here. Anyone who OK with this kind of thing...get help please. Also the whole XuXa thing. if I did this film I would try and stop it as well. She really should be ashamed of her self. the fact that she is a children's entertainer now seems real messed up.

It often seems to be the case that morally unacceptable films can hide behind the term 'art'.I'ts shocking and outrageous that a film director should require a 12 year old child actor to take part in sex scenes.If this film had been made in Britain,instead of in Brazil with it's soft laws on child abuse,there would have been criminal charges.Sex between adults and children is perverted.I'ts unnatural.Quite who the target audience for this film is I don't know.It would appeal to paedophiles,never mind those who consider it 'art'.There is nothing 'tender' or 'romantic' about child abuse.I'm amazed that this sick film is now available,uncut, in Britain;it gives the green light to child pornographers because they can point to it and say "hey,look!,soft child porn is acceptable,why not hard core?"I don't usually believe in film censorship,but this film should be banned in Britain.

Hollywood produces hundreds of action/cartoon/fantasy films each year. Look closely and you'll see they all mimic each other. Redundency is key in Hollywood. However if you seek a thinking film, which reaches into your every day life, look to Foreign Films. Here is one called " Amor Estranho Amor. " Roughly translated it means, 'Love, Strange Love. ' It's the story of a man, Hugo (adult - Walter Forster) who's returning to the family home he lived in when he was a very young Brazilian preteen boy growing up amid the governmental turmoil of the 1930's. Having been evicted by his Grandmother, he is taken to live in his mother's house, a glamorous, socially exclusive, high class Bordello. While there, Hugo as a child (Marcelo Ribeiro) recalls the two days he spent with his prostitute mother and a bevy of beautiful whores. While a group of political radicals plan the over throw of the government, Hugo is treated to the eye-popping candy delights of his youthful imagination, while his mother warns him of those same pleasures. The movie is stylish, often opulent with respects to the lavish settings, the gorgeous women and most startling with the innocent beauty of the boy and his mother. However, the stagnant dialog and poor acting of the principals leaves much to be desired. Although there is much controversy over the inter-action between the young boy and the lascivious courtesans, there is nothing in the movie to be feared by any save those who lack sophistication. As for those mature enough to accept this masterful art piece for what it is, the writer/director Walter Khouri, his cast Xuxa Meneghel, Tarcisio Meira and Vera Fishcher are to be praised as they have given the world a foreign Classic. Well done. *****

In the present days of 1982, Hugo (Walter Foster) visits a beautiful manor, remembering his childhood. Some fifty years ago, that place was a famous brothel, visited by very important persons. His mother Anna (Vera Fischer, one of the most beautiful Brazilian actresses) works in the whorehouse, and he is raised by his grandmother. However, she sends Hugo to spend a couple of days with his mother to press Anna to increase the allowance she sends to raise her son. The blonde, beautiful and young whore Tamara (the Brazilian pop-star XUXA) has just arrived from the South of Brazil specially to serve an important politician. Anna seduces Hugo and with her, he has his first sexual intercourse that marks him forever.This stylish movie of Walter Hugo Khouri has a beautiful photography and a nice coming of age story of lost of innocence with the first sexual experience of a boy through the memories of an old man. However, it is also very ironical that the whore who seduced Hugo is nowadays one of the most famous Brazilian pop-star. In the 80's, Xuxa became famous posing nude for male magazines (such as 'Ele & Ela' and 'Playboy'). Then, after an affair with the black soccer player Pelé, she became the host of a show for children in Manchete TV. She was very successful in her new career, and became a symbol for the children. Inclusive she has shows in some American Cable TV. Then, in accordance with the rumors and the urban legends, she would have gone to the court, bought the rights of this film and most of the copies available in the market and this movie became forbidden for Brazilians. The fact is that my VHS is very rare, and if it is true, I regret the lack of opportunity for the new generations of cinema lovers, who probably will not have the chance to watch this film. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Amor Estranho Amor" ("Love Strange Love")Note: On 08 May 2010, the Cinearte Filmes unsuccessfully tried to distribute this film. Therefore it is true that Xuxa has forbidden the distribution of "Amor Estranho Amor" trying to hide the truth about her origins.