Scene 5

Late night in Ferraza. The city is deadly quiet.

 Venus arrives at the Roman Gardens on her bicycle, towing in a cart a big, inflated sack -- with objects that should be for her performance, due that very morning. It's heavy, from her effort to unload it.

Though the Gardens are closed, Venus knows just where to sneak in, slowly dragging the sack up the stairs. She is dressed for the play, in a costume that she has sewed herself. It should remind a Roman tunic -- but if it does, it is very faintly, looking more like cheap beachwear. But she still looks lovely, with a crown of fresh white narcissus around her head. For her slave impersonation, she is wearing a leather choker and leather bracelets.

The Gardens are in the dark, and she pauses, waiting for her vision to adapt. The moon is not full yet, but shines bright enough for the girl to find her way through the fragrant flower beds, where a few herbs like thyme, basil and rosemary have also been planted, to increase the sensorial pleasures of the visitors.

The central space has been beautifully decorated with white canopies -- and Venus touches the fine cloth to confirm they are better quality than her own dress --, hanging from column to column, that have been adorned with flower garlands. The waves of fine cloths configure the improvised stage, around which dozens of white chairs have been arranged for the audience. Ferraza's most important citizens -- or important, at least, to the Audace family -- have been invited to occupy those seats. In the past weeks, she had been feeling the pressure of making a good performance for those people -- and it really hurt her when Al said she played the harp so terribly. But now she knows better -- how unimportant her play or performance is. Having carefully conceived the plot and chosen the words to praise the noble Audace family and its centuries long lineage, dating back to the bedrock of the city of Ferraza itself, she now feels to have been fooled.

The chairs all face the belly button of the Gardens, where the sculpture of a fine looking young man in marble sits. For the muscular body and carefree nudity, they call it Athlete in Repose, though nobody knows its real name in Antiquity, nor its author.

While Venus wanders around a little, going from one statue to the other, to give the audience of the movie a chance to see the Gardens, we will take the chance to share a few things we learned from the book that inspired the movie. 

Venus hadn't been born yet when the Roman Gardens underwent its last and major renovation. Though it had been in the Audace family for centuries, and for that extent of time the four statues of women from different periods of Antiquity had been already on display, the current Signore Audace liked to think they represent his own four daughters.

When Alcibiade, his only son, had been born, eighteen years ago, Signore Audace decided to renovate the Gardens. He brought in the statue of the seated boy to be its central piece -- though the city where it had been originally unearthed complained and even sued Signore Audace. The four statues of women were then reallocated to encircle him, all facing the center, placed accordingly to represent the four Cardinal points.

Instead of the grand event planned, the new configuration of the Gardens was only discreetly inaugurated, when Signora Audace died before Alcibiade turned six months old. 

Her ghost is said to haunt the Gardens. 

But Venus isn't afraid. 

All the things that happened before her birth seem to have no effect on her. And though it is also said that Al's sister, who was kidnapped and murdered, also haunts the Gardens, her spirit emerging from the white marble on full moon nights, Venus isn't afraid either of the events that have taken place since her birth. Except, perhaps, one that deeply affects her -- the death of her own mother, a few years ago.

It was her mother's death that brought her closer to Al, who is an orphan himself. 

In fact, when writing notes on the scripts he sent to his cast, Mr Skandaloukos, the movie director, noted both the characters of Venus and Al should seem to 'move in the void' left by their mothers' deaths. Much more deep and vast and nuclear in the case of the boy, who has been a lifelong orphan, but also for Venus, who has been left without any family but her father, the senator, who won't legitimately recognize her, and Vittoria, her half-sister, who rejects, abhors her.

But Venus is not thinking of any of these things, as she makes her way towards the very center of the Gardens, where the beautiful boy sits on his pedestal -- he who should represent Al. And this knowledge only makes her next actions the more opressive and tragic for her.

Venus caresses the muscular legs of the boy, shamelessly feeling her way up between his thighs, as if he truly was her own sexy, handsome, real boyfriend. But she never looks up towards the sculpture's head -- that has been carefully reassembled to its body --, intent in not meeting the cold face and petrified stare. Not even when she speaks for the first time in this scene. Frowning, her lips trembling, she addresses the empty space.

"Please, mother. Help me do the right thing. Not just for me. For us. For all of us. Please don't leave my side, mother."

There is only the breeze in the trees to answer her. The crickets, the owls. But something must inspire and give Venus strength, for it is surprising that a thin girl like her can actually drag the weighty sack from the entrance up to the feet of the boy's statue. She pauses every now and then to rest, regain her breath, and pray. When the sack of utensils is close enough to the statue, she opens it and starts immediately working. She is sweating, already, and the freshness she spotted on her arrival fades with her agitation.

Fade out.

Scene 4

Giuliano, looking bored, one hand playing with the curls of his hair, while the other twists the hair on his chest, is seen against the setting sun. Behind him, the landscape is a gentle succession of waves of scarcely populated but intensely cultivated hills rolling as far as the horizon. The boy has not abandoned his place between the single row of ancient columns to have survived centuries of earthquakes, and he still observes the other margin of the Roman swimming pool. Like vessels painted in soft pink and pastel orange, the reflection of clouds float by on the now placid surface of the thermal waters.

From his countenance, it's hard to guess what Giuliano is thinking, except that he clearly doesn't want to be there.  It would also be fascinating to guess what Gianlucca Tringtan, who plays Giuliano, must be thinking -- there is no record of when his love affair with Thaysa Tragis began, so that he might have fallen in love with her during these scenes, among the very first they shot together. Or perhaps he is feeling jealous of seeing her in the other actor's arms, who was also her lover for a while -- Adrian, from whom Gianlucca will soon snatch her.

Post coitum, animal triste. 

We see the lovers -- if love was there, in the assault we have just witnessed -- sleeping under a red bougainvillea, turned redder by the last rays of the setting sun. The floor is covered with fallen flowers, making the grass even softer for the lovers -- but Al takes Venus' breasts for his pillow, leaning his head over her chest. Embracing the thighs he has just violated, he snores lightly, in a very pacific sleep.

It would be a lovely scene, if Venus hadn't her eyes wide open. She is unquiet, but tries to be still to let Al sleep. She frowns her brows, as her whole body contracts, as if she were in pain. And she is. She then closes her eyes, her nostrils vibrating as she hyperventilates. We might think she is suffering from cramp -- if we have already forgotten she has just been raped. Her torn, now useless bikini, hanging loosely around her buttocks, is an embarrassing reminder of her shame.

She tries to keep her eyes shut. Her whole body trembles slightly, after a breeze blows a handful of dried flowers around her. But while the breezes passes, the girl's tremor won't subside. Al mumbles in his sleep. A sing tear falls, barely wetting Venus' cheek.

"What time is it?!" Al exclaims, glancing around, trying to recognize the unfamiliar place in which he has slept. "How late is it?" Meanwhile, night has fallen, bewildering him the more. "Why did you let me sleep, Venus? Merda!"

"Because you were tired?" Venus answers with another question. Quietly, not addressing his irritation.

Al looks over his shoulder, to see Giuliano still standing between the columns. The other boy is but a silhouette cut against the moonshine.

"Cazzo! We must have missed the match!"

Venus shrugs, and seeing it makes Al really mad.

"We are going to win the World Cup and you don't care? We are going to beat Brazil, and you still don't care?" 

Venus just shrugs again.

Al springs to his feet, and before Venus is on her knees too, he grabs her by the waist. Roughly picking her up, he carries the girl on his shoulder. She protests, trying to grab the bikini bottom that is loose around her flesh -- but the boy is much taller and stronger than she is, and he tows her at his own will and pace.

"Your problem, Venus, is that you don't have a family." Al hurries towards the olive tree under which the Lambretta is parked, and where they have left their clothes, also. "You don't have a home to go back to, so you don't understand..." He deposes Venus with greater care, as his anger seems to have dissipated. 

"It hasn't always been so..." Venus comments. She is clearly hurt. Heartbroken, even, at recollecting her dead mother.

"Now. I know. But you have to understand. I have something to return to. Even Giuliano has his duties to return to. And now we have missed the match, mortacci tua!" Al puts his T-shirt, while Venus finds her skirt. When she dresses it, she lets the bikini finally slip down her legs. Noticing it, Al widens his eyes. Could that be an invitation for more fun, real fun? He tries a sweeter approach with the girl. "My family worries about me, you know it perfectly! You should be grateful, Venus. They are letting you perform your play on such an important day for us!" He tries to embrace her, but Venus only surrenders to his arms after having tugged her skirt closer to her body. Both he and she seem very aware of her unprotected nudity underneath. It's a risky move for Venus -- maybe just because, having been already raped, she believes Al won't do it again to her.

"Yes. And I think we should rehearse some more..." She says.

"You are mad, girl!" Al laughs. "Night has fallen, already. We know it by heart by now, don't we?" He is trying to pull her closer to his body.

"I do. But do you, Al?" Having risked enough, Venus finally leaves his arms, withdrawing a few steps.

"Venus, who cares if I skip a sentence or two? Who will know if I change words?"

"I will!" It's she who is now getting angry.

"Carina. Maybe there is something you should know..." Al pauses for a moment, making a decision. "Your play is not the most important thing about tomorrow."

"I know. We are celebrating twenty centuries of the Roman Gardens!" She is offended, as he seems to take her for far less intelligent than she actually is. 

"Yes, that too. But the Gardens are no longer important... My father has a big announcement for tomorrow!" Al is suddenly excited to break her the news. "His words will matter the most, not ours. For the whole town of Ferraza, believe me!"

"Yes, what is it?" Unlike Al, Venus doesn't look thrilled.

"We are building a new hospital."

"You mean..." Venus freezes for a few seconds. "Over the Gardens?"

"Of course. Where else? It's right next to our hospital. The new and the old buildings will be joined by a suspended gangway. It's so cool, you'll see!" Al claps and laughs, a bit childishly. 

"You mean..." Venus is at a loss for words. "You are... tearing the Gardens down?" She frowns, as she considers the consequences of such news. "But what about the sculptures? What about the frescoes? And the Roman walls? The tower?"

"You ask a lot of questions, don't you, cacarella? The sculptures and frescoes will be displayed in the new hospital's lobby, I think. I don't know about the walls. Or the tower. They are old. They should be demolished, I guess. But wait until tomorrow. My father has all the answers." Al doesn't conceal his pride.

"I can't believe you are letting this happen, Al! They are tearing the Gardens down and you don't care..."

"But Venus, Ferraza will have a new hospital! Didn't you hear that part?"

"Sure, and your family will make more money! That's all that matters to you! Not Art, not History. Only money!" 

"History? What are you talking about?" Now his pride of a moment ago is hurt. "It's just some bushes and bricks that will disappear. Your beloved Art will be preserved..."

"People have been using the Gardens for centuries now. We walk on their steps when we wander there. Our Roman ancestors... Don't you see?"

"My ancestors, you mean. It was my family who lived there, in Roman times. A noble family! It's up to us to decide, don't you think?" He retorts, and puffs.

 "But it's the whole town's history." Venus is disconsolate, and it's with much melancholy that she adds, "And ours, too. We met there..."

"You mean the Gardens are our special place?" Al grabs his crotch, aware that Venus is closely watching him. "Like, if I had taken you there, you would let me fuck you? We should go, then..."

"How can you say that, Al?!" Venus whines. She looks at Al as if seeing him for the first time.

"I'm joking, Venus." Quite haughtily, he turns his back to the girl. "Why do humble people have to take everything so earnestly? Like it were a daily matter of life and death, as if they were starving?" Al asks to himself.

But loud enough for Venus to hear it. She has been offended before, when in other occasions -- not rare at all -- he has tried to imply that being poor has hindered her education and integrity of character. But tonight she won't fight for anything but her position.

"You have to detain it, Al!" 

"Are you hungry, Venus? Do you have food at home?" He teases her a little further, but quits upon seeing she is not aggrieved. She won't stir from her track so easily. "It's unstoppable." He shrugs. "The plans have been approved by the mayor, already. They are from an architect based in Rome." He nods to himself, as if only now realizing the importance of this fact. "And why would I stop it, if I could? It will be good for everyone."

"No! Talk to your father."

"Porca Miseria! It's my father who wants to build the hospital!" He slaps his own forehead, in the gesture implying that it's the most obvious remark he has heard. "Why would he stop, even if I asked him?"

"He does anything you ask." She insists.

"Now. That is not always so!"

"Don't you care about the Gardens? Don't you care about the city?"

"Don't you care about the city?" Al retorts, indignant. "How can you not want a new hospital?"

"You can tell your father to build it somewhere else! You don't have to destroy the Gardens!"

"Where, Venus? The Gardens are the perfect location. The hospital will expand! More people will be treated. People who have to leave Ferraza for specific treatments will be taken in here!"

"It's only about the money, isn't it?"

"When I become a physician, Venus, I want to work in a better hospital in my own hometown!"

"Ah! So now I see." Venus claps. "As usual, it's all about you!"

"Of course it's not solely about my future! It's the future of our town!" Vexed, Al stamps his feet. So rarely contradicted, he is currently more surprised and hurt than angry. "Why are you acting like this, carina? After what has happened today? Do you want to spoil our... next to first time, cacarella?"

Clearly annoyed, Venus turns to leave.

"Now. Stay." Al raises his voice. "You like to play it hard, don't you? And you've got me hard again... Here, feel it." He seizes her arm and tries to place her hand on his crotch.

"Giulano!" Venus screams, and we cannot tell if she is feeling real panic or faking it. "It's time to go home. So that you can learn the result of the match..." She shouts it, so that the boy on the other margin of the swimming pool can hear it, too. "Get your hands off me, Al."

He let go of her immediately. In a gesture of disdain, as if she were contaminated -- or maybe she is sweaty -- he cleans his hand on his shirt.

"Dio cane! Why the fuck are you acting like this? It's our last days together..." 

Al is hurt. Her rebellion stings him. How can she disdain him, when he is the most coveted prize for any girl in town? And especially for a humble chick like her? Pride is the key, the director has noted on this scene in the script, and Adrian Çellon is acting accordingly to his instructions. Hurt pride, in this case. But most of the time it's only his pride, while Al doesn't care about anyone else's.

"Leave me, Al." Venus grabs her last piece of clothes -- but won't put them on -- along with the harp. "Just leave me."

"Leave you?" Al is astonished. "Why? Why are you acting like this? It's like you don't... want me anymore?" He remains still as she walks away in a hurry, to where she left her bicycle. Barefoot, holding the sandals in her hand. "Venus? You will be there tomorrow, won't you? We still have a play to perform, don't we?"

"Let us see, Al. Ciao."

Scene 3

Bathed in the golden light of a late Summer afternoon, the ruins of a Roman Thermae, the public baths of Antiquity. Magnificent mountains outline the horizon, cropped between tall, ruined columns onto which creepers grow. Repeated earthquakes have thrown different parts of the otherwise grandiose temple inside the thermal waters they once sheltered. One can swim among marble columns and richly sculpted friezes -- but not many people do, for the ruins lie in the Audace family's lands, and public access is forbidden. Al goes there regularly in Summer, often inviting his closest friends to join him. 

Today, Venus is with him. As the pretty little harp -- the same from the scene at the Roman walled garden -- sits next to his red Lambretta, we conclude they must have been rehearsing again. 

Now taking a break, they are under the shadow of an old olive tree, sitting on the grass, amidst wild flowers, in their bathing suits.

"Why is he here?" Venus indicates a person that can be seen on the other margin of the pool, under the only columns to have remained standing. "The gypsy boy, I mean."

"Giuliano? I thought you said you wanted to include a new character in your play..." Al giggles. Caressing Venus's enviable waist, with fingers light as feathers, he looks enthralled by her body.

"That was two months ago!" She shivers from his touch. "We are showing it tomorrow. How could I include a new character now? In fact, we should be rehearsing..."

"We have had plenty of that, already." Al kisses her back, ever so softly, closing his trembling eyelids as his lips linger on her skin. He inhales her smell, and after holding his breath for a moment, only then confesses, "We both know they are an excuse to be together..."

"They are no excuse for me, Al. My play..."

"Yes, I know." He retorts, impatiently, while plucking a tuft of grass and throwing it away. "It's your chance to get seen and start a career as an actress. Well, I ain't no actor!" The lightness in his touch lost, Al pulls Venus towards him, but she resists. "Now let's have some fun... See, you've got me hard again..."

"You are always hard when you are with me." Venus retorts, nonchalant. "Now stop! He is watching...."

"He is supposed to."

"What do you mean? He is now your watchdog?"

"You know my family, Venus. They worry that I get into trouble."

"I am their trouble, am I not?"

"You are the love of my life, Venus. Now, lay down next to me..."

"Not when he is watching!"

Thaysa Tragis had this tiring habit of stressing one particular word of each sentence. It only impoverished the rest of the speech.

"He is watching for my family. But I told him to see nothing, do you understand? Stop worrying about him!" For a moment, Adrian stresses a few words too, using Thaysa's tone. It's a subtle criticism, that the debuting actress doesn't catch at once. She later drops it, when the director scolds her.

"Why does he have to stand there, then? If we can see him, means he can see us too. Now, stop that hand right there!" Al is trying to touch her nipples under the bikini. 

"Venus, come on. He's simply got to stand there. Just in case someone comes to check whether he is doing his work."

"You mean your family will send someone else to watch him watch us?" Venus tries to look offended, but she is actually delighted as her half smile indicates. "Am I that dangerous, really?"

"You know you are.." Al smiles as he kisses her skin again, and even licks it. "Now, if we stay in this position he won't be able to see naythingh..." Al is seen stretching his broad shoulders as if that could cover Venus completely from Giuliano's view.

"Can't you send him away, Al? Please? I don't like being watched..." In her tone, there is the implicit suggestion that perhaps Al actually enjoys being watched by the other boy.

"OK. Let's move over there."

Giuliano follows the lovers from the distance, with his eyes, but does not leave his place, as they walk over to the other end of the pool. Al carries Venus in his arms. She caresses his face, tenderly kissing his lips as they walk.

"You know I'm leaving, Venus. We have less than a week now. Don't you want me?" He uses a begging tone.

"You know I do, Al." Venus replies, very sweetly. "And you know I want to wait..." She plays with the crucifix on Al's chest, as if to remind him of how religious they both are, and that she is a virgin, that his intentions should be pure, too. For what a sin it would be to do anything inappropriate before marriage -- though she might have done a few, already, just to keep Al. Just to keep Al.

"I can't marry you now, Venus. I'm off to the university. Don't you want our love to endure the distance?"

Venus sounds not just surprised, but indignant too, as she asks "Will you forget me when you go to Rome?"

"Of course I won't. But I'd like to have something more. I mean, something really serious to remember about us. See, I am hard again just thinking..."

"I don't remember seeing you soft since we got here, Al." Thaysa has received her scolding during the interval, and is no longer stressing the words. 

"I'm a man, Venus. You know all my friends have girlfriends with whom they have done it, already. I can't wait. I won't wait. Each day is my last day here. I hope it won't be ours, too."

With this ultimatum, Al jumps into the pool, leaving Venus on the ancient marble stairs that lead right into the water. Brooding, reflecting. Once in a while Venus looks in the direction of Al, who vigorously swims back and forth across the pool, many times, and lets out a sigh. 

She looks just once in the direction of Giuliano, who has now seated, looking the more impatient as the sun goes down, and lets out a grunt, before closing her eyes. Venus seems to have finally surrendered to the warm feeling of the sun caressing her skin, to have finally relaxed in the privileged beauty of the private archaeological site,  -- and, just then, we watch a tear stream down the side of her cheek.

When Al comes back to find Venus dozing, he seems to have made a decision -- for both of them. He grabs Venus and lifts her in his arms. She gasps, still looking sleepy, and embraces him with her thighs not to fall into the water. Al's hands go under the bottom of her bikini, reaching for her buttocks. A bit too roughly, and the thin cloth tears.

"No!" She slaps his chest, very softly, either faking or not daring to actually protest. "You ruined my bikini!"

"It's actually mine, isn't it?" He says, his hands groping, accessing more of her flesh, widening the rip. "I'll give you another one. I'll give you a dozen. Now take it off."

"Not here, Al. Please..."

"What do you want? A bed with canopy in the castle's tallest tower?" Al mocks her. "Don't you say this is our special place? Well, then. Let's make it memorable! Let's have our first..."

Venus interrupts him. "But Al! Anybody could see us here... He can see us here."

"Into the water, then." Al descends the slippery marble steps, clumsily carrying Venus, and deposits her inside the pool as if she were a burden. "Take it off." He demands, untying the knot of his trunks, from which his erection is straining to be freed. As his pubic hair is seen, we are reminded Adrian Çellon is naturally a redhead, that has darkened his hair to play Alcibiade. "No, I don't want you to jerk me off." He protests, upon seeing how she is about to handle him. "Get down on your knees. You know how I like it. Get me wet with your spit."

"Al, no!" Venus tries to oppose when he forcefully tries to bend her. "He is watching us..."

"Giuliano!" Al shouts. His voice echoes around the ruins. With satisfaction he watches as Venus lowers his trunks, and when she kneels before him, he shouts his command. "Watch the sunset!"

"What?" The other boy retorts, confused. It's the first time the camera focuses on Giuliano, but as he is looking over his shoulder, towards the couple inside the water, we don't yet see his face. 

"Turn around, stronzo." Al moans, as Venus takes him into her mouth. "Look the other way." He dismisses Giuliano with a bossy gesture, and turns his attention back to Venus. "Now, you..." Al hisses. His face, taken by lasciviousness, reminds us of a faun. "It feels really good, but today I want more than that mouth. Today I want all..." He pauses for a moment. "Today Al wants all." He says it in English, laughing, knowing the girl doesn't understand a word. He pushes Venus towards a huge piece of marble that has only half submerged, and nearly smashes the girl against what might once have been part of the temple's front piece. She is at least a head smaller than him -- though Thaysa is almost as tall as Adrian, so that she has to stand deeper inside the pool, and try to look a great deal more frail than she ever will be, too. 

"Al! What are you doing? I can't breathe! No!" She pushes away the hand he rubs against her crotch. But he resists her slap, intent in undressing her.

"Let's make a baby, Venus!" For a moment, he sounds like his sweet self again, the loving boyfriend he could be -- but his movements are increasingly violent. "Then they'll have to marry us!"

"What? We can make a baby after we marry! Stop, Al."

"You know I can't marry now..."

"You can't marry but you can make a baby?" Thaysa is back to stressing words, but to good effect in such a moment.

"Open your thighs, babe." He lowers his trunks a bit more, while trying to force his leg between hers. But Venus holds them tightly together. "Now." He raises his voice to command her. "Let me in." 

Not without struggle, without much space to maneuver between the old stone and Al's arms tightly  wrapped around her, Venus succeeds to turn her back to Al. But she is not trying to escape, Instead, we watch her desperately rubbing her hips against his pelvis, provoking him, and mechanically exciting him with the friction. Pulling him against herself, she tries to bury his face into her shoulders and hair, and he responds with kisses and bites at her neck. She wants to keep him glued to her in that position, and only fights the boy when he tries to turn her to face him again. 

If words are what differentiate humans from animals, Venus and Al have abandoned them, to become primal. They only grunt and groan in their struggle -- his to submit, hers to resist. 

In her countenance, we see Venus is calculating, trying to decide quickly, while Al manhandles her. Then Venus is seen reaching back with her hand. Not to stop the man from sliding her bikini bottom to the side -- but to actually direct him, once the cloth in the way is removed. Her eyes are cold, and she seems to have decided. She doesn't want to be penetrated -- but if it's going to happen, there is one way she will allow it. She lets out a piercing cry, while from Al comes a guttural grunt -- when he finally breaks into her, plunging with a single, deep trust, to leave Venus no chance of giving up. 

At once, Al starts seriously trusting into Venus. Deep, and hard. He seems to have settled for what he is now getting, and no longer tries to turn the girl to get her facing him. It's enough to get to see her pretty face -- the prettiest in town --, now crisped by the pain he is inflicting her, but also flushed by the pleasure and their recent struggle -- that he has won. He keeps a hand over her mouth, to muffle her cries, while with the other firmly pulling her against him. But Venus is no longer trying to escape. She even arches her back to meet his trusts. Sensing her surrender, Al relaxes the urgency in his grip,  to concentrate on the wild cadence of his own wallop. Now that Venus is collaborating, he doesn't seem to want risk losing one hole he is already in, tight and warm as it is, for another he might never get now, though tighter and warmer it certainly is. 

Though in her first sex scene in the movies Thaysa is not even naked, she looks the more sensual exactly because she isn't. Her character seems to symbolically protect or preserve something by leaving her skimpy clothes on, against Al's assault -- and Adrian Çellon's Greek god's beauty and proud nudity doesn't help to soften his character's bestial behavior. 

The physicality of this assault and other far from tender acts lead to rumors that the intercourses in the movie were real, and much has been commented about Thaysa's sex scenes in CRUX. During the filming, gossip spread that she was leading affairs with Adrian Çellon, who plays Al, and with Gianlucca Tringtan, who plays Giuliano. Concomitantly. Though she has never been photographed by Gianlucca's side, for he was married and they must have kept the affair very discreet -- or else, as people fantasized, the couple took every professional chance to actually make love before the cameras, when it was only perfectly justifiable.

In her interviews, taking pleasure in stimulating the audience's fantasies, Thaysa kept saying she never felt embarrassed by the excitement of her male partners in a scene. The young actress actually wanted to feel their hard-on against her thighs -- or between them, she added, to give the whole forced, staged (or not) intimacy more realism. Their irrefutable erections give her a sense of power over them, she declared. It made men obvious, and rather simple. And she referred to men's ejaculation with such terms as "proof of incapacity", "final defeat", or "supreme humiliation".

The camera draws closer and closer to the lovers' faces, as their -- or Al's, only -- climax approaches. They have turned nearly red, as sunset approaches, too. Grunting louder, Al is seen trusting faster and harder into Venus. The water splashes between and around them, as their bodies collide with muffled sounds. Just as a wicked smile starts spreading on Al's face as he is about to climax, instead, his face is contorted with surprise, when Venus makes a quick movement that is below the camera's angle. 

In a couple of seconds, the young man's face goes from surprise to anger then surprise again, while Venus' expression is one of immense relief -- and we are led to think she has moved her hips so that he slipped out of her.

"Bitch!" he exclaims, before letting out a loud moan, and collapsing onto Venus. 

Al's orgasm is heightened and hindered by anger. Exasperated, he pulls Venus' body brutally against his own. She tries to evade his suffocating embrace, but he is keeping her firmly into his arms, as he grabs her by one breast, that he squeezes mercilessly until she whines, and by her waist, the skin whitening around the pressure of his fingers. Regaining his breath, he bites her neck, intending to leave a mark, and she doesn't protest. Eventually she abandons herself completely to his violence. The less she fights, and actually absorbs his frustration, the faster it dissipates. 

"Here." Al runs his hand against her back, and it looks shiny and sticky, his fingers dripping with thick body fluids when he brings it to her lips. 

"Eat the babies you have wasted, bitch." He whispers in a coarse voice, still breathless.

The next cinematic seconds have equally fascinated and disgusted different portions of the audience. Many have paused the video, to watch it frame by frame as Venus opens her mouth, sticking the tongue out, to collect Al's sperm mixed with their sweat. Like tiny pearls filled with sunset reflections, we see them dripping onto her lips, but before she swallows, the scene fades out.

Scene 2

Six years earlier...

Tourists walk around and photograph a well tended garden enclosed by tall, ancient stone walls. Through the ages, vines have been climbing to the top of the towers that no longer stand to defend what once in its history was a fortified estate. Guidebooks inform us that it has existed since Roman times, and for centuries it has been a property of the Audaces -- Al's family.

 Among beds of flowers and fragrant lemon trees, classical sculptures adorn the zigzagging paths that invariably lead to a fountain that is said to be older than the city itself. The side walls are lined with precious frescoes -- some originally from the site, others coming from various historical properties the Audaces own around the country. A prized possession of the family that has ruled Ferraza for millennia now, the Audaces opened the gardens for public visitation centuries ago, as a gift to their hometown -- yet keeping appointed hours for the exclusive visiting of the patients from the hospital across the street, which is owned by the family, too. 

The Roman Gardens, as they are called, are the most visited site of Ferraza.

When we meet the characters back in 1970, Al and Venus are supposedly 18 and 15 years old. The director hadn't wanted to have teenage actors to tell the story of his main characters when they were younger. So he filmed them from different angles, to alter their height, and apart from changing their hairs, asked them to lose weight -- which was another reason of stress for Thaysa, who on the contrary was starting to gain weight. She did go on a diet, even if constantly worrying about the baby growing in her belly -- with her belly -- and whether she wasn't harming it by eating less instead of feeding its growth by eating more. It were days of profound doubt and confusion for her -- but she never considered stopping working. 

Partially dressed as a Roman boy and girl, Al wears a laurel crown, while Venus' is made from white narcissus. The book tells us they are rehearsing for a play Venus has written herself. Taking place in Roman Antiquity, it's the naive story of a slave girl and her master's son, who use the Gardens for their secret, romantic dates. Pretty much inspired in Venus and Al's story, since they have first met in the Roman Gardens themselves, when they were just children. It's only as teenagers that their love has finally bloomed into a relationship.

Observed by Vittoria, who hides behind a column, Venus plays the harp. So unskillfully, so terribly bad, that Al has to exclaim,

"Girl! You will drive the audience away playing like that!" He says, whining. "No, stop. It's awful, Venus! Stop! You will raise the dead! Is that what you want?"

She immediately quits it, walking away from him. After a few steps, she is crying.

"No, Venus." Al goes after her, not without showing some disdain at her being so emotional. "Please don't cry. I did not mean your mother. I mean, she is dead, but... I didn't mean her." He tries to embrace the girl, but she pushes him away. He looks more and more confused with the words he is trying to find to comfort her. "Cazzo! I meant dead people in general." He is now irritated.

"Like you sister? Your dead sister?" Venus hisses. (It's hard to avoid the temptation of sharing details found in the book and that have been omitted in the movie -- one of Al's sister has been kidnapped a few years ago, and though Al's father did pay the ransom, she was killed)

"Now, you don't have to be cruel!" He says, reproachfully.

"Are you saying that to yourself?" Venus retorts.

"Come on, carina. We shouldn't be fighting when we have so few weeks left..."

"You are being cruel again!" Venus shouts, and starts sobbing.

"Hush. No. I haven't left yet, have I? Here we are. And we have your play to rehearse. Shouldn't we continue?" Al is caressing Venus, stroking her hair, all the time trying to make her stop crying. When he succeeds, and she agrees to resume the play, he announces "But first, I have to pee."

"While I am thirsty." Venus retorts. "Will you meet me by the fountain? We can rehearse our other scene over there."

Leaving in opposite directions, they are smiling and blowing kisses at one another.

What happens next is very fast. Venus approaches the fountain, and we see Vittoria following her from behinds the columns. 

Venus bends to sip from the ancient fountain, the crystalline water pouring out of the mouth of a colossal lion's head in bas-relief . But she sees a shadow quickly coming over her, and turns just in time to see Vittoria jumping to attack. Vittoria grabs Venus by the neck and tries to drown her.

A fight ensues. Venus' bustier gets ripped in the process. The surprise and shame of seeing herself semi naked gives Venus new strength to fight against her opponent. The two girls fall inside the fountain. Now Vittoria is surprised, and releases Venus.

There was the usual criticism for Thaysa appearing naked again. Many people check this scene for the first signs of pregnancy, for the filming would be interrupted a few days later, to be resumed many months ahead. Many say it was exactly the pregnancy that gave Thaysa such mesmerizing looks. Her skin shines, and looks so soft and yet tight. No matter how much more famous,Valeria Mongella is a pale beauty in comparison. The director stimulated the actresses competition asking Valeria to look undone in her frustration, while Thaysa was supposed to look innocent and fresh in her untidiness.

Except for the grunts and moans, the two actresses don't exchange a single word.

But Vittoria isn't out of action for long, and soon attacks Venus again, grabbing her hair -- who lets out a sharp cry not just of surprise, but because it really hurt, she later told the press.

Al arrives at the fountain, running.

"Stop. The two of you. Stop now!" He commands. The girls don't listen nor even seem to notice his presence. He stands ridiculously bossy, while keeping his distance. As Vittoria and Venus fight, water splashes, and Al clearly doesn't want to get wet -- though he is shirtless, and the girls wear light clothes, supposedly indicating it is warm. 

The truth is Adrian Çellon, having lost weight, is happier than ever with his abs, and insisted to shoot the scene without a shirt on -- nor any underwear. Still, he did not want to get wet -- but in the end is forced to go into the fountain to separate the girls.

"Puttana! Bitch!" Vittoria shouts, as a teenager echoing the shout we have already heard from her mouth as an adult. She sits on a stone bench by the fountain, and is shivering in her wet dress.

"Vittoria Eugenia!" Al exclaims. It sounds odd to say her two names, but he does so to keep his distance from the girl he clearly dislikes. He doesn't want to get involved, not in family matters that are not from his own lineage. At the moment, he is more concerned with his own wet trousers and  sandals. "Sisters shouldn't fight like..."

"She is not my sister!" Vittoria interrupts him, stamping her foot.

"Now everybody knows..." He starts, trying to sound magnanimous, just to be interrupted again.

"She is the bastard child. My father made a mistake! He shouldn't have fucked that whore! He fucked her just once..."

"Stop!" Venus cries, for the first time saying something in the whole scene.

"And that once was enough!" Al adds, quite humorously.

"She is a whore, too! Like her mother, she is a whore! Puttana! She doesn't deserve you." Vittoria is now addressing Al, though not looking at him directly. From the book we know she is closer to him in age, at 17 years old. "She doesn't deserve you..." Vittoria repeats. Abundant tears flow down her cheeks.

In this scene, Valeria Mongella's first longest one, it becomes clear how she sets the standard higher, interpreting Vittoria Eugenia. Not in a moment she tries to fake her voice tone -- Thaysa's take on Venus -- or perform some weird clumsiness -- Adrian's approach to play a younger Al -- to pretend being a teenager. She simply looks younger, and it's the temperature of her emotional reaction that makes her act like a teenage girl. Valeria has not simply been acting in Italian movies and TV shows since she was a girl -- she has been acting well, and learning, and improving.

While Thaysa and Adrian look quite expressionless in comparison. Thaysa is at least trying to act Venus' sadness out, but Adrian's face is just bland. He seems more concerned with his hair, and how much of his chest and abs her hand will hide, when Venus embraces Al from behind, and smoothly whisper into his ear,

"Nothing, no one can make us part."

But how gorgeous they are, Venus and Al -- histrionic Thaysa and inscrutable Adrian. At the height of their beauty. The voyeuristic camera moves around their two bodies like a gaping, hungry mouth, ready to devour them. And they are both aware of its hunger, but instead of appeasing it, only stimulate and tease it the more. The audience is mesmerized, as if they are the real works of art, and not the exquisite sculptures or frescoes around them.

Not just as individual paradigms of beauty, they make a beautiful couple, too. Their fictional romance in CRUX went on to real life, when the cameras turn off. Having had a brief but intense romance during the filming, that had begun as a few nights affair during the rehearsals back in Rome, Adrian Çellon is one of the possible fathers for Thaysa's boy. 

Some say their romance ended when he learned of her pregnancy -- which is, a few days after these scenes were shot.