**_Beauty and the beast at an Italian castle_** A half-American woman (Sherilyn Fenn) returns to Italy to inherit the family castle, but she and her best friend (Charlie Spradling) dubiously get involved with a traveling carnival troupe, led by a dark, handsome man (Malcolm Jamieson). "Meridian” (1990), sometimes subtitled “Kiss of the Beast” (and also known as “Phantoms”), is a castle-oriented romantic drama/fantasy with elements of the supernatural, even horror. The real star is the milieu of the castle and the awe-inspiring garden of colossal statues, along with the two brunettes. Speaking of which, they’re both shown top nude a couple of times (so stay away if that offends you) but, honestly, the director & cinematographer didn’t really take advantage of their presence (not talking about nudity or sleaze). In other words, they didn’t know how to photograph beautiful women. There's a surprising politically incorrect element that wouldn’t fly today and is bewildering if you think about it (I don’t want to give it away). Meanwhile the details on how a person is to escape a 400 years-old curse are eye-rolling and almost singlehandedly ruin the movie. It’s like it was written by an author of bad romance/fantasy novels. It runs 1 hour, 26 minutes, and was shot at Castello di Giove, which is a 75-minutes drive north of Rome, as well as Bomarzo (the garden of statues), which is about seven miles west of the castle. GRADE: C+

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