The Raffle (La riffa) is a 1991 film from Italy directed by Francesco Laudadio.
It stars 27-year-old Monica Bellucci in her film debut. Bellucci is Francesca, the gorgeous young wife of a businessman named Maurizio, mother to five-year-old Giulia. The film opens with Francesca being woken in the middle of the night by a terrible call: Maurizio has been killed in a car accident, and she is now a widow.
She is then hit by other devastating blows. Francesca was living the life of a high-flying, pampered, rich woman, but she discovers that her husband was broke. He has massive debts, all their property is mortgaged, and at the time of his death he was a year behind on the mortgage payments to their home. In fact, Francesca is penniless, without job skills, and with a little girl to look after.
A stab at getting a job as a shopgirl goes bad when she is embarrassed by her rich friends and sexually harassed by a supervisor. Francesca sells off all her possessions, and more or less blackmails her friend's husband into giving her a sable coat after sex, which she also promptly sells. But those are short-term solutions only. Finally, she hits on an idea. She will hold a raffle, and the prize will be her. Twenty of the richest citizens of Bari will bid a hundred million lira each. Francesca will keep the money, two billion lire (a million American dollars), and in return, she will be the lover/mistress/companion of whoever wins the raffle, for four years. A complication arises, however, when she finds herself falling for a handsome young man named Antonio.
Tropes:
- Call-Back: Early in the film, Cesare, Maurizio's superficially friendly but actually rather slimy lawyer, buys Maurizio's yacht from Francesca at a cut-rate price. At the end, she wriggles her way out of legal trouble and a prostitution charge by telling the cops that they have it all wrong, that the prize of the raffle wasn't her, it's the yacht.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: After being cheated on by her husband and saddled with his debts, treated as a prize by the raffle participants and having her heart broken once again by a Gold Digger, Francesca is able to get the money she needed.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Francesca gets a job as a sales girl in a shop, but is fired after her boss sexually harasses her.
- False Teeth Tomfoolery: Francesca, who is casting around for a sugar daddy, accepts a date with an older man. Things are going ok, he gives her a necklace—but when she turns and sees that he's put his teeth in a glass by the bed, she drops the necklace in the glass and gets the hell out of there.
- Gold Digger: Turns out that Antonio, the nice guy that Francesca accidentally knocks down with her car and subsequently hooks up with, is hoping to mooch off the raffle that Francesca will get.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: All the wealthy folks who were in the raffle, who have gathered together for a mass, chat about how Francesca got the cops to swallow the story about the raffle actually being for her husband's yacht, and how they are soon actually going to have the draw for said yacht, while Francesca is keeping the money. Then one of them says "And now the story is closed."
- Lousy Lovers Are Losers: Francesca clearly finds Sandro to be an unsatisfying lover. During their sex scene, we even see a Revealing Hug shot of her displeased expression as he humps away on top of her.
- Meet Cute: The third act begins with Francesca hitting Antonio with her car (at a slow rate of speed). They fall in love. Subverted when it's revealed that Antonio knows about the raffle, wants a piece of the action, and actually stepped out in front of her car on purpose.
- The Mistress: Maurizio had one, a woman named Camilla. Francesca is horrified when she finds out that Camilla, who apparently swings both ways, is one of the players in the raffle.
- Ms. Fanservice: Francesca, played by a 27-year-old Monica Bellucci, gets into various states of undress. It becomes Deconstructed when said states of undress often put her in degrading situations.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The film ends with Francesca, who has finagled her way into collecting the money without having to rent her body out for four years, walking away on an airport tarmac, flying off somewhere, accompanied by Giulia and the loyal maid.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The story is kicked off in the opening scene when Francesca is told that her husband has been killed in a car wreck.
- Revealing Hug: Just to make it perfectly clear that Francesca is not enjoying herself during sex with Sandro, the camera shows her empty, bored face as he humps away on top of her.
- Riches to Rags: Francesca was the wife of a wealthy man. But after her husband's death, she discovers that he's been saddled with many debts and she's forced to sell most of her property in order to pay them off.
- Sexual Karma: Contrast Francesca's sex with Sandro and Antonio. She looks empty and bored while having sex with the former, but is far more passionate when having sex with the latter. Subverted when it turns out shortly after that Antonio is a Gold Digger as well.
- Shameful Strip: Francesca has invited all of her rich society friends into her home, to buy her stuff. A woman asks where one particular Little Black Dress is, only to be told that Francesca, in fact, is wearing it. A furious, humiliated Francesca takes off the dress then and there, leaving her in stockings, and Black Bra and Panties.
- Single Mom Stripper: Supporting her daughter, and specifically paying for her education, is one of the main reasons why Francesca is willing to sell her sexual services for four years.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Easily the creepiest would-be raffle participant is the man who invites Francesca to a somewhat dilapidated mansion. She is given a white wedding dress, and, after she puts it on, is ushered into a room where a half-dozen other elderly men are there to "help" her. Whatever happened isn't shown, and Francesca seems to be physically undamaged, but she is staring emptily and not talking as Cesare drives her away from the meeting.
- Unreveal Angle: One of the would-be players in the raffle meets Francesca and shows her a film of...something, something that apparently she would be expected to do if he wins. What is on the screen is not shown, but Francesca agrees.
- Wedding Ring Removal: Francesca finds out that her husband had a mistress, and in fact was driving back home from her house at the time of his fatal accident. She pulls her wedding ring off in a fit of rage and flushes it down the toilet.
