Unlike lucky kids nowadays, yours truly didn't grew up in an era where pornography was freely available all around the internet. Heck, there wasn't even "the internet". So, I reckon I did what every more or less normal teenage boy in the 90s did, and that was snooping around in parents' closets for dirty movies. We also had a subscription to a sort of paying film-channel, and after midnight they would air X-rated movies that I then secretly taped. "The Leopard", although I had no idea what the title was back then, was such a dirty little secret, and for several reasons I always considered it to be one of the best adult movies ever.
Since I didn't remember the title, or any of the cast members names, I spent years looking for this film. When I finally found it, it was quite a surprise to see Joe D'Amato's name listed as the director. Now, I know he made dozens of adult films especially in the last 10-15 years of his career, but he'll most remain infamous for the extremely gross and vile horror/exploitation films he made during the 70s and 80s, like "Antropophagus", "Beyond the Darkness", "Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals" and "Death Smiled a Murder". Since I recall this to be a rather elegant and stylish adult movie, I never expected D'Amato to be the director.
Well, maybe I must put the "elegant" and "stylish" into perspective a bit. There's still quite a lot of perversity going on here, like incest, prostitution and priests breaking their sacred oaths. The main plot is about a castle owner whose beautiful but frigid wife doesn't want him to touch her anymore. So, instead, he seeks his carnal pleasures elsewhere, like in the local brothel or with his sister-in-law. Meanwhile, counts and countesses are messing around with the household staff, nephews climb on their aunts, and the frigid wife seeks help in the arms of a priest. What I always remembered, though, is that the women are genuine and natural beauties that wear little shorts instead of G-strings, and that the sex-sequences are relatively short but very arousing. Throughout the history of the adult film industry, I sincerely doubt if there ever were actresses as ravishing as the ones here, like Cindy Scorsese or Nicoletta.