First Love on AllMovie

An artist's strange obsessions take a grim toll on the woman he's fascinated with in this drama from Italy. Vittorio (Vitaliano Trevisan) is a jewelry designer who is set up on a blind date with Sonia (Michela Cescon), a attractive woman whose figure is slightly zaftig but well proportioned. Over the course of their date, Vittorio, an obsessive artist who doesn't do well in contact with others, tells Sonia, who is close to few people besides her brother, that he would be more interested in her if she lost some weight. Sonia is miffed at Vittorio's blunt statement, but he persuades her to spend more time with him, and as she grows fond of him, she accepts his offer to move in with him. Soon, Vittorio has put Sonia on a strict regimen of diet and exercise, in a bid to reduce her weight; as he becomes increasingly obsessed with her body, her hunger and exhaustion begin to cause hallucinations, and soon she can no longer tell what around her is real and what is imagined.