Exotic melodrama If Luigi Scattini, who opened Zeudi Araya for cinema, finally realized that it was pointless to sculpt an actress from her to his third film with an Ethiopian beauty, and in the film The Body gave the girl the opportunity to be what she was - a spectacular model, then Pierre Ludovico Pavoni after a year re-entered the river, so reluctantly abandoned by his predecessor. That is, he tried to rediscover in Araya something that did not exist in her when he was born – acting talent.
You can understand Pavoni, though. In his main cinematic specialty, he was a cameraman, and simply could not afford to pass by such a stunning cinemagenicity as the Ethiopian had. Only here her character this time looked much more difficult than those fatal beauties that offered Araya Scattini. The dramatic story of a black girl who fell into the patriarchal atmosphere of the Sicilian hinterland of the 50s of the XXth century suggested not just an external image of character (which, incidentally, Zeudy brilliantly managed in the memorable “Signora Robinson”), but also an immersion in its depth. Maybe even the subconscious. Justification of the motivation of the protagonist, opposition of her mentality to the way of life of the Sicilian village and so on, and so on. At the same time, the demonstration of what Araya could boast - that is, a magnificent body, remained only an additional factor to the psychological portrait of her heroine, as well as a kind of trigger that triggers a chain of events leading to the inevitable finale.
But, as you can guess, nothing like Zeudi could not, and the film turned into a melodrama with an exotic plot, the possibilities of which were used hardly half. The history of the appearance of a beautiful African woman in the patriarchal world of Sicily gave the opportunity for a serious conversation about the interpenetration of cultures, about the fear of a closed society before the “alien”, about overcoming prejudices. There's a lot more. It was just a love story. True, world culture knows many such love stories, to say about which "only" would be sacrilege. But the "sinner" is not the case.
Obviously, the director drew inspiration from Italian neorealism. And the point here is not only in the time of action, attributed to the era when this trend in the cinema was just beginning, but also in the visual series, in the character of the characters, in attention to detail. But classical neorealism and stylization under it are two different things. In addition, Pavoni was interested only in the external manifestations of style. He didn't dig deep, and he wasn't going to dig. The position of the lower strata of society of the 50s did not interest him at all, the life of the “little man” too, and the main character of his film was distinguished from the crowd only by her appearance. However, for “cruel romance” this was enough, and for more needed a slightly different approach.
“Sinner” simply and without pretenses tells the story of how the appearance of the black beauty Deborah drove the entire male population of the mining village crazy. And also their wives, who accused a stranger of witchcraft and tried to survive from the town. While her husband was alive, Deborah could ignore these ridiculous attempts, but after his death, the situation began to spiral out of control. It was worth it, like all the others, to fall in love with the son of the mine owner, and the latter to respond to his love, as Shakespeare’s finale became obvious long before the end of the film. With Shakespeare’s catharsis, however, it did not work out very well – but I think that sentimental viewers will find a reason to get wet with a headscarf. What else does a melodrama need? With everything else, unfortunately, not to Zeudi Araya. If there were more films like The Body or Signor Robinson in her career, she would have left a much brighter mark on movie screens. It may be unfortunate to find a director.