Love Strange Love

Love Strange Love^[2][3] (Portuguese: Amor Estranho Amor) is a 1982 Brazilian erotic crime drama film written and directed by Walter Hugo Khouri. The film stars Vera Fischer, Tarcísio Meira, Xuxa Meneghel, and Matilde Mastrangi. Fischer won the Best Actress Award at the 15th Festival de Brasília as well as the Air France Award.^[1][4]

An older man wearing a business suit is dropped off at a mansion by his driver. He wanders through the rooms of an apparently abandoned and empty mansion. The scene flashbacks to some 45 years earlier, where a twelve year old boy is being escorted on foot from a train station by his grandmother. The older woman produces a letter and asks the boy to give it to his mother. They are near the gate of the same mansion the older man would visit 45 years later, and the grandmother leaves the boy there. The gate is locked, but a woman greets the boy. He gives her the letter, saying it is for his mother, and she escorts him into the house.

After they enter the house, another woman who appears to be serving as a business manager greets them. After being told about the letter for Anna, the boy's mother, the manager dispatches the first woman to find Anna. Meanwhile, many women in the house are hard at work preparing for what appears to be an important upcoming event. As the boy is escorted to a side room by the manager, he tells her that his grandmother left him there to stay with his mother. The manager seems shocked by the idea of the boy staying with his mother. Anna appears and embraces her son, commenting on how much more like a man he now is than he was the last time she saw him a year ago.

Anna discusses the letter with the manager. In the letter, the grandmother—Anna's mother—complains that Anna generally provides full support for the Santa Catarina household, and Anna's mother is angry that no money has been forthcoming for the last few months. As Anna and the manager continue to talk, it becomes increasingly apparent that the large mansion they are in may serve as some kind of brothel. The mansion is owned by a Dr. Osmar, and the women apparently make a lot of money off of Dr. Osmar and other wealthy men.

As the activities in the house are illegal, it is dangerous to allow a twelve year old boy to stay there, but Anna has no local family to send him to. They can return the boy—with some money to appease Anna's mother—to Santa Catarina, but need a plan for what to do until after the upcoming event. The manager—now referred to as the brothel's madam—summons a woman named Therese and instructs her to create a makeshift bedroom for the boy in the attic. Anna takes the boy to her room. The boy seems to recognize there is something unusual about the house, but is too innocent so far to realize its true nature.

Anna later takes the boy to his space in the attic. In the attic, Anna promises that eventually they will have their own house together, but that he might have to return to his grandmother for a short time. Someone arrives and Anna leaves. Shortly after, the boy observes the women preparing for customers.

Anna and Laura then talk on the patio with Dr. Osmar, who is a major political figure preparing for the Brazilian election. To win the election, however, he needs an alliance with another man who is coming to the brothel a little later as a client. The plan appears to be to entertain the man and place him in a compromising situation so he will feel pressure to agree to the alliance.

Anna and Dr. Osmar then have sex for an extended period while Hugo watches—from his vantage point in the attic Hugo appears to be able to spy on activities in a number of rooms in the house. Witnessing Anna having sex, Hugo seems to realize for the first time the true nature of the house and his mother's line of work, and starts crying. Dr. Osmar appears to be a would-be leader of a Brazilian government that would ally with the Axis if given the chance.

Olga, who has previously shown interest in Hugo, arrives in the attic, complaining that all the men who patronize the brothel are slimy characters and implying she wants the chance to have sex with someone more wholesome like Hugo. She unbuttons Hugo's shirt and pants and carcasses his body for a bit before she undresses and invites Hugo to fondle her breasts, which he does. They are interrupted when another woman approaches and starts crying, for unknown reason. Olga retreats to the roof to hide but soon after, comes back, puts her robe back on, and leaves.

The planned event begins that evening, with a live band providing entertainment. A group of well dressed men, led by a Dr. Benicio, arrives at the party. When a newly arrived prostitute, Tamara, is presented to him as a sort of gift, Dr. Benicio becomes suspicious that the situation might be some sort of trap and begins to question what is going on.

Hugo spies on Tamara and then on Anna, who is becoming aroused. Hugo returns to his attic and goes to bed, dreaming of sex with first one woman and then a group of about six women. He starts to masturbate while in bed to these images.

The next morning an associate of Dr. Osmar arrives at the house and angrily demands to speak with Dr. Osmar. Once Dr. Osmar is roused from sleep, he is told that some kind of coup has happened. Dr. Osmar tells Anna that the coup will likely lead to his needing to go to France in exile. He writes Anna a check and says they will talk more in the afternoon. Dr. Osmar, Dr. Benicio and the men who work for them leave the house in a hurry.

Anna tells Hugo that he will need to return to his grandmother, although Anna will send her mother more money. Anna says that staying in the brothel wouldn't be good for Hugo, but he has trouble understanding and starts to cry. Anna tries to comfort him; she removes her robe, allowing Hugo to caress her body, and then makes love with him.

A political figure, apparently newly empowered by the coup, arrives at the house and somewhat vaguely promises to continue to protect the brothel from the law. The scene shifts back to the present day, where it is revealed that the older man in the house is donating the house to charity. He seems to be a very senior political figure being referred to as “Your Excellency”. In the film's final scene, the older man reveals that the young boy is his younger self from 45 years earlier.

• Vera Fischer as Anna
• Tarcísio Meira as Dr. Osmar
• Xuxa Meneghel as Tamara
• Matilde Mastrangi as Olga^[5]
• Íris Bruzzi as Laura
• Walter Forster as Hugo (Adult)
• Marcelo Ribeiro as Hugo (Child)
• Mauro Mendonça as Dr. Benicio

Marcelo Ribeiro said that, unlike his first movie Eros, o Deus do Amor, when they put duct tape on his privates because he couldn't control himself, in this film's sex scenes he had a normal nude. "I learned to separate what was work and what was intimate. But of course there's always a little joke, an awkward situation... The film set is very mystical, you never know what might happen", he said.^[6]

Vera Fischer revealed that she had initially refused to do the love scene with Marcelo Ribeiro. It was the director himself who convinced her that the scene was essential: "Walter Hugo already likes these things. If he had a female child, I don't know...The scene turned out beautifully, the little boy wasn't even intimidated," she said.^[7]

In the criticism of the website Filmes do Chico, it is stated that "because it was associated with Xuxa as a pedophile, the film gained a fame that does not correspond to the material it offers. Like all of Khouri's films, Amor, Estranho Amor has many sex scenes, a lot of free nudity, but, putting the drops on the is, it's a good movie."^[8]

Love Strange Love caused some controversy due to the participation of Xuxa in the cast. In an interview, Xuxa explained that she was between 17 and 19 years old when the film was made. In another interview Xuxa comments that the film was made in 1979.^[9] Her character has sexual relations with a boy of 12 years, interpreted by the actor Marcelo Ribeiro.^[10] As in the contract there was no release of the image for video, Xuxa, through a judicial injunction, ordered to collect all the original tapes of stores and stores of the country, nevertheless 4,000 copies were sold before the Justice to distribute its distribution, being, therefore, many pirate copies continued circulating, making of the film a true legend among people who did not know the work.^[11]

The video of Love Strange Love has its marketing and distribution prohibited in the country. However, the film was released on DVD in the United States in 2005 and can be purchased by any Brazilian on foreign import sites. The US producer did not sell the rights to Xuxa, who filed a lawsuit in the US in 1993, but lost.

In 2006, Marcelo Ribeiro was found at 39 and gave several interviews, and also published a book on how everything happened at the time, including conversations behind the scenes with the actress. In 2007, Marcelo Ribeiro, then at age 40, gave an interview where he comments on the film's controversy. Taking advantage of his momentary popularity, he made a pornographic film the same year.^[12]

In 2007, the entire film became available in 5 parts and uncut. No legal action has yet been taken on the case. In 2011, producer Anibal Massaine fights in justice in the attempt to commercialize the film, taking advantage of the fame of the artist.^[13] In 2014, Xuxa lost a lawsuit it filed against Google to create a filter in order to eliminate results related to the movie in its search engine.^[14] Xuxa filed an appeal against that decision, but in 2017, the appeal was denied.^[15]

• Love Strange Love at IMDb