User reviews

The one thing I remembered about "Bocaccio70" was Romy Schnaider getting dressed in front of a mirror, in front of us. The film in his 4 segments has much more, but nothing better than Romy Schnaider in the Visconti segment. She is exquisite of course but in Visconti's hands she is superlative. Visconti, like George Cukor, knew how to guide actresses to their best. In the Monicelli episode Renzo and Lucia search for their privacy and Monicelli, a remarkable director, today 92 and still at work, manages to give the most straight forward, no frills segment. Fellini goes overboard with a 50 feet tall Anita Eckberg and a rather clumsy indictment at middle class morality. The De Sica episode has Sophia Loren, virgin and whore. When Sophia Loren was in De Sica's hands she was at her best. Her sympathy here takes over the episode and it becomes a joyful tale of nonsensical innocence. But, just as I remembered Romy Schnaider and Visconti are responsible for making this lightweight oddity really worth while.

Boccacio was a 14th century Italian poet, storyteller and humanist who among other works wrote "Decameron", a collection of licentious stories which is very much appreciated even nowadays. In 1962 four great Italian film directors (Monicelli, Fellini, Visconti and de Sica) made this movie in four episodes (each one by one of them) inspired on the same theme of Bocaccio's work i.e. erotic love in our times under several of its forms: marital, repressed, adulterous and paid for. It combines Monicelli's humour with Fellini's symbolism, Visconti's psychological realism and de Sica's social and moral satire. In my opinion the best episode is de Sica's one, the story of a beautiful woman (Sophia Loren) who runs a shooting sideshow in a funfair. The less good is perhaps Visconti's one story of a rich couple whose wife revenges herself of her husband's infidelity in a curious and elegant way because of somewhat dull dialogues which is however compensated by the gorgeous interior sceneries of the palace where his episode takes place like he has already made us familiar with in some of his other movies. All the episodes combine humour, sensuality and light drama in balanced doses and will undoubtedly please the viewers.

A quartet mini-features from the 4 most prestigious Italian directors must be a rare treat for aficionados, but since shorts sometimes has been designed to experiment maestro's more daring or outlandish innovation, so a 1+1<2 formula is well acceptable for the viewers at least.

Act 1, Monicelli's amiable modern tale of a pair of young newlyweds working in the same factory while conceiving their nuptial facts since it breaches the unfeeling regulation. Monicelli's devotion and affection to the general mass is ubiquitous, the camera follows intimately to record the lovebirds' daily work, diversion and quagmire, and the bittersweet ending is unerringly sanguine which should be the bloodline runs inside the Italian lineage.

Act 2, Fellini's ever-first colour endeavour, surrealistic, sumptuous and luscious fantasy of a moral watchdog's eventual relinquishment towards a sexy bomb (an enormous 50 feet-tall Anita Ekberg), a female-exploitation gag which is constantly overplayed (not inclusively) in Fellini's canon. But visually, Fellini's manoeuvre of projecting different proportioned characters (creates two identical settings with different sizes) is quite nimble without exposing any shoddy clues (except the forged beasts, which is a buzzkill).

Act3, Visconti's pleonastic noble Count whose brothel scandal evokes a major crisis with his wealthy but vindictive wife, a higher-tier pastiche ends up with a sloppy reference of a disparaging stinking rich's gauche prostitute fetish. At any rate Romy Schneider is the best thing in it, pairs with a well-suited Tomas Milian, presents a paragon of bourgeois vulnerability and emptiness.

Act 4, another "prostitute" farce in a rural background, De Sica seduces the world with Sophia Loren's vulgar and crude beauty, a sultry whore will spend one night with the man who guess right of the lottery number, but it turns out to be a mental masturbation joke, quite tedious and a bit offensive.

Apparently this is another patchy miscellany doesn't live up to the test of the time, Monicelli's neo-realistic part (which suspiciously is taken out completely in the original US release) is the standout and quite a pity it didn't make up to a feature-length piece of work which producer Carlo Ponti had promised then.

These three directors definitely distinguish themselves here from each other without being cocky. Well, Fellini and Ekberg may be VERY audacious, but that just adds positively to his work in my opinion. In his segment 'The temptations of Dr. Antonio' is enough material to fill an entire feature. It brings big fun and surrealism in a story about a very BIG billboard with a picture of Anita Ekberg on it holding a glass of milk. A moralistic guy (censor?) who lives right in front of the billboard (and BTW gets a very funny introduction in the film) can't accept the supposedly scandalous picture and takes action. After seeing it, I couldn't get this tune out of my head: 'Bevete piu latte' (you must drink milk) which is a commercial tune for the billboard. It is all very carnavalesque, versatile and entertaining. It's a pity Giuseppe Rotunno (Amarcord, Città delle donne, il Gattopardo, Carnal Knowledge) didn't dignify this segment with his cinematography (as he DID with Visconti's poetic segment which has a much more distinct atmosphere and has less special effects).

The common factor between the three segments is a (light) moral discussion about what sexual borders people can have and what must occur to make them actually think about it. Where exactly lies the border of your taboos? The film is also watchable as plain entertainment, for the three starring ladies are captivating and intense here (though in general I don't like Ekberg that much). Romy Scheider played a girl in the silly 'Sissy' (1955-57), but is already glorious with her subtle impression in this segment of a mature lady who gets double-crossed by her fiancee and takes revenge.

I didn't see the segment 'Renzo e Luciana' unfortunately, because it was unavailable :(, but I guess I liked Fellini's part best and De Sica's least (as most of his work): De Sica had some better short films in 'Ieri, oggi, domani' (1963, all starring Sophia Loren). Or it could be that I liked the first two segments best, because there was Nino Rota's (Godfather, Amarcord) score under them. De Sica's segment is just not interesting in any way. Nevertheless this is a triptych of the highest order: underrated.

9/10

Though an ardent Fellini fan, it took me some time before getting round to buying this 'portmanteau' of four separate stories from Italy's leading directors of the time.

Which was actually 1962 and not the 1970 that the title suggests. Portraying love, sex and lust in the 'modern age' hence the futuristic date in the title each part is 50 minutes long and in my experience, is best watched in two sittings. You'll probably have read that as well as Fellini, Vittorio de Sica, Luchino Visconti and Mario Monicelli, all but the last being very well known to knowledgeable film buffs.

It takes nine writers, including input and ideas from the directors themselves to mould the very different stories here. The women definitely hold the upper hand in every one of them, loftily placed on pedestals - busty Anita Ekberg in Fellini's; Romy Schneider in Visconti's and Sophia Loren in de Sica's.

The first segment, from Monicelli, is actually a bonus on the DVD as it was apparently cut from theatrical releases shown outside Italy. But, actually, that part is a good setting point - ordinary young female factory workers who live with the worry of everyday life and love and the hanging threat of old traditions, the Church and ruthless employers who attempt to quell their youthful desire for sex. Some scenes, with busy trams and bustling street scenes at rush-hour, remind me of the earlier classic 'Bicycle Thieves'.

Visconti's part is a talky - and fairly boring - 'discussion', fixed to one nice, very posh apartment. The subject is now rather ordinary, probably unlike then, that I'm wanting more substance and variety. There again, I never was 'into' Visconti - high on style and period detail but low on flair and exuberance, at least compared to the others.

Fellini was in the late autumn of his career at this point and this manifests itself by him displaying some trademark vaguely tasteless wit, swipes at Catholicism and Authority but surprising us with some truly inspiring set-pieces. His first foray into colour, it's a very bumpy and uneven ride, bounding from barely watchable to reassuringly great and familiar.

A young and very shapely Sophia Loren, under De Sica, is used to portray many themes in neo-realist Italian cinema - Life itself. Outdoor fairs, sultry night-times when lovers and larger-than-life characters come out to play and village pettiness all affect this red-dressed temptress, who, like so many, yearn for greater and better things. It's at a touch funny and sad, but oddly, not as compelling as it should be. Though never the greatest actress, Loren doesn't let the side down, but her raw physical beauty always means that is what is seen first, before emotional depth.

Critical reviews vary - some quarters saying that it's a lot of wasted talent. My immediate response is that all the directors and key players have done far better work and those seeking them out for the first time should look elsewhere - I'd hate for anyone to be put off potentially brilliant Italian cinema by them watching this and being disappointed.

However, for Completists, like me, who have seen and loved these great director's best films, then the draw will become insufferably great and purchase will become inevitable. At least this quality transfer Mr Bongo release allows us to sample this odd collection at a good value price.

1962's "Boccaccio 70" arrived during a period when anthologies were making a comeback (Roger Corman's "Tales of Terror" from Hollywood), four different directors doing one segment apiece, inspired by 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio but updated to the present. Mario Monicelli's opener, "Renzo e Luciana" was never included in export versions for two logical reasons, first that at 3 hours-plus the picture was already quite lengthy, and second that the director failed to secure a name star for box office clout. Easily the most dialogue heavy and least humorous of the quartet, a newlywed couple forced to live with the bride's huge family while trying to earn enough wages to move into a place of their own. Their slave driving employer complicates things due to his skirt chasing insistence on single girls only, the poor groom pretending not to know his bride whenever the boss is present (she does enjoy a good vampire movie at the crowded cinema!). Considerably more fun is "Le Tentazioni del Dottore Antonio" (The Temptation of Doctor Antonio), the first color production for Federico Fellini, Peppino de Filippo as a middle aged morality watchdog with a hypocritical fascination for the female form, exemplified in a huge advertising poster of Anita Ekberg, holding a glass of milk below her already ample bosom (an Ekberg billboard for "Call Me Bwana" is prominently displayed in the James Bond thriller "From Russia with Love," both from producer Albert R. Broccoli). Even better for science fiction buffs, Anita actually comes alive as a 50 foot woman engaged in taunting/seducing the dazed doctor. At one critical moment he reaches down inside her cleavage, perhaps the inspiration for Bert I. Gordon's promotion for 1965's "Village of the Giants," after which she recovers his tiny umbrella from between her breasts! Next is Luchino Visconti's "Il Lavoro" (The Job), never leaving the luxury apartment of Count Ottavio (Tomas Millian) and his lovely Countess Pupe (Romy Schneider), discussing the pros and cons of his scandalous unions with high class call girls, Pupe's father holding the purse strings and betting his daughter's considerable allowance that she won't be able to find suitable employment without any experience. This one tends to drag after a time, so leave it to Vittorio De Sica to bring up the rear with "La Riffa" (The Raffle), scintillating Sophia Loren sashaying provocatively across the screen as a shooting gallery proprietress who offers her favors for one night to the lucky recipient of a winning ticket so as to pay back taxes that could lose her the booth. Once the winner is revealed he receives a plethora of financial offers for his ticket but yields to his mother's insistence that he not give in. The four stories are a study in sacrifice, some amusing or at least rewarding, the missing segment fully restored for a complete viewing experience.

Words are not enough for this wonderful quadruple satire. Yes, in the beginning there were FOUR, but the Mario Monicelli story got cut to economize on time. It is the least funny but very compelling tale of two newlyweds finding no space or time to be alone together. A beautiful story.

On the DVD distributed by the Dutch label Homescreen all 4 stories are included. Very odd though, it is a widescreen version, but from the top & bottom there are layers missing. So all the players standing up, get there heads chopped of. Astonishing, and very irritating. The sound every now and then echos, which is bad too. And the only subtitles available are in Dutch...

But to see these wonderful tales again, of Fellini, Visconti, De Sica & Monicelli, and to see Romy Schneider, Sophia Loren & Anita Ekberg play so majestically, might be well worth it to forget about the technical problems of this DVD. And let's simply hope CRITERION can obtain the rights shortly, for they will surely do this fourfold little miracle justice...

The Visconti segment out-classes the De Sica, the Fellini and the Monicelli segments. The common factors of all the four segments are sex and money, sprinkled with humour. But Visconti shows his ability to infuse class and certain maturity.

The Visconti segment shows the Tomas Milian and Romy Schneider characters reading two wonderful books that seem to be out of place but are in some ways connected to the segment and Visconti's future projects/ideas: Lampedusa's "The leopard" and Robbe-Grillet's "Les Gommes" (The Erasers). By itself, the Visconti segment, based on Guy du Maupassant's short story "Au bord du lit" (At the Edge of the Bed). deserves a 8/10.

Four directors tell tales of Eros fit for a 1970s Decameron. Working-class lovers, Renzo and Luciana, marry but must hide it from her employer; plus, they need a room of their own. A billboard of Anita Ekberg provocatively selling milk gives a prudish crusader for public decency more than he can handle. The wife of a count whose escapades with call girls make the front page of the papers decides to work to prove her independence, but what is she qualified to do? A buxom carnival-booth manager who owes back taxes offers herself for one night in a lottery: a nerdy sacristan and a jealous cowboy make for a lovers' triangle. In each, women take charge, but not always happily.

Fellini's "Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio" (the second story) is really the highlight of the film. It could have been released separately and done very well, with its memorable sparring of a prudish doctor and a 50-foot woman (Anita Ekberg) who threatens to disrobe in public. The music in that section is also the best, with the children singing a milk jingle.

Part one is also strong, and speaks of a forbidden lower-class (or working-class) romance, and part three is alright. Part four is almost an afterthought, in that the movie is over two hours at that point and viewers would have already decided if they were fans or not.

I have not seen all of the components of this multi-director opus, but saw the Fellini bit and it was quite weak, in my opinion. Fellini's short film, "The Temptation of Dr. Antonio," revolves around the prudery of a middle-aged man, played by Peppino De Filippo. Dr. Antonio's rigid morality cannot abide a billboard of Anita Ekberg advertising milk because Ekberg is showing a bit of cleavage. Perhaps in 1962 this "comic device" was conceivable but in 2011 it is absurd and painful to watch. On top of the extremely dated and un-funny antics of Peppino vis-a-vis Ekberg, there is a young child (a putti, actually) narrating the film... perhaps this narrator is the "glue" holding all the films within this film together. The singing of this little kid about milk and her various other sundry contributions is super annoying and another reason to avoid this short Fellini movie.

I remember seeing this as a teenager when it was in the movies. An entertaining trio with a sexual theme but no nudity in the 60's. The best was 'The Censor' with a hyper-voluptuous Anita Ekberg as a 100 foot long billboard ad (for milk) that comes to life to torment the local censor -- absolutely hilarious. Then the magnificent Sophia Loren in "The Lottery" where the winner of the drawing wins her for the night. Last is with the late Romy Schneider in a bittersweet tale about a philandering husband who uses their wealth on prostitutes. At least that's what I remember after well over 30 years. If anyone knows where I can rent this again, please let me know.

This is a behemoth of a movie at nearly three and a half hours, but it's composed of four short films which can be viewed independently without losing much. The directors are Mario Monicelli, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, and Vittorio De Sica - high caliber, indeed. With themes of love, marriage, sex, and morality, and with stars like Romy Schneider, Sophia Loren, and Anita Ekberg on the bill, it held great promise for me. Unfortunately, the film peaks early, with a strong first two films giving way to pacing issues and misogyny in the second half. If I had to rate them individually it would probably be along the lines of 4 stars, 4 stars, 2.5 stars, and 3 stars.

The first act is charming, and involves the early days in the marriage of a couple of blue collar workers (Marisa Solinas and Germano Giglioli). The sense of claustrophobia in this story is stifling, starting with just how many people there are in the scenes at the office, a swimming pool, and a movie theater, which are beautifully composed by director Mario Monicelli. More important is how closed in the couple are at home while sharing a room behind a thin door with her family, who are always around. She's also subject to incredibly unfair and misogynistic rules for her employment in an accounting department, which state that she's not allowed to be married or get pregnant. Her prying boss with his maniacal haha! Laugh is seriously creepy as he keeps an eye on her at and away from the office. How they cope with this and adapt in a supportive way is quite touching - this is what marriage is, or should be. The moment when he picks her up at the waist and she extends her calves behind her as they kiss is so graceful and perfect. Along the way, the film also touches on unequal pay between spouses (in particular, the woman earning more than the man) and references abortion while talking about an unwanted pregnancy. It's sweet romance, not gritty neorealism, but at the same time, it's got these elements as well as the sacrifices love must make, especially in the early days when a couple are establishing themselves in the world. Really enjoyed this one.

Act two has a conservative man who has taken it upon himself to uphold morality in the city aghast over a giant billboard put up to advertise milk, one with Anita Ekberg reclining seductively. While the people in the park it's put up in have no real issue with it, this guy believes it to be a corrupting influence and tries to do everything he can to have it taken down. The film skewers the "morality police" that pop up seemingly in every culture and every age, and does so effectively because it shows that their issues with what they deem "indecent" relate back to their own sublimated desires. Fellini adds some wonderful surreal touches when the woman on the poster comes to life in giant form. I couldn't decide which of these three lines I liked best: "When I move my hips, convents shake," "What's wrong with looking at a naked woman?" or "Milk is good for you, whatever your age!" the latter with "milk" obviously representing sex. It's just a wonderful, playful piece, but one with a timely edge for 1962.

Unfortunately, act three from Luchino Visconti is a step down, despite the charms of the gorgeous Romy Schneider, and her doing everything she can with the part. The story is just too simple: the marriage of a wealthy couple is on the rocks when the wife discovers her husband has been visiting high-end prostitutes, availing himself of some of them eleven times. In a needlessly elongated preamble with the lawyers, we see that she has all of the power in this situation, as the business assets are under her name and her father can take action for her. Despite that, she veers between staying with him in an open marriage, going out and getting a job for herself, and then becoming (essentially) a call girl herself to him. She's asked him if he would prefer her to the prostitutes in a hypothetical situation, you see, and done the math, estimating they've had sex 150 times in their 13 month marriage, equating to $60,000 at the rate he's paying. She's also gotten sex tips from one of the prostitutes he likes, promising him she'll be just as good for the money. The main issue is that there is just not enough escalation in this story and it's too flat for its duration, but just as important is how icky this resolution feels, with her emotional as she sacrifices her body and dignity to save their marriage. It was incredibly simplistic male fantasy, even though it probably thought of itself as empathetic to the wife. Regardless, a complete miss, watchable only for Schneider.

The fourth act is also rather disappointing, despite direction from Vittorio De Sica and Sophia Loren at the height of her powers dancing and jiggling around playfully in a tight red dress. She plays an illiterate woman in Naples who works at a carnival attraction, one that's rife with obvious sexual imagery. The locals, leering over her body, aim air rifles at various objects. "Aim at the balloons," she says, squeezing one about the size of her breasts into a revolving cage. "Finished shooting? That's three loads." she tells a customer before pulling his change out of her bra, oblivious to the double entendre. "Aim at the target," she tells the others, bending over to put something down. When one wins a bottle of wine, he promptly opens it and sprays it all over dress. Later she's forced to strip it off because a bull has escaped, and it's red, you see. It's all terribly low-brow and beneath both Loren and De Sica.

Worse, however, is where the story goes from there. To make money fast, she has a guy auction off lottery tickets for 3,000 lire, the equivalent of two days pay for a working man, for the chance to have sex with her. All the middle-aged men in town, as horny as they are unattractive, go wild. When a bald, mousy, religious guy wins and then shows up to claim his prize, a younger man who she's fallen for angrily takes her trailer on a wild, bumpy ride, with them bouncing around inside it. He then stops, gets out, and smacks her around, feeling the right to so after having known her for a few hours. Ashamed of herself, she then gives the bald guy the lottery winnings instead of her body, thus making herself "virtuous," and getting the other man back. The fact that the transformation in her character occurred not from within but from a guy she barely knew hitting her, compounded with her then still wanting to be with him, was nauseating and regressive, despite the sexual "freedom" that Loren and her character seemed to represent. The story line here was unfortunate.

A sketch film that runs 3.5 hours is just too long; sketches should last 15-20 minutes to be most effective. What we have here are four short films by three first rate directors and one journeyman (Monicelli).

First up is Monicelli, and it's really easy to see why his episode was cut for North American release: it's a dull account of lower middle class struggles. The two protagonists are barely interesting enough to keep watching--and in fact I used fast forward to get through this one. More comedy would have helped.

Second is Fellini, and it's like switching from a bicycle to a Ferrari: the sight of a 50 foot tall, exuberant Anita Ekberg scandalizing a frustrated, virginal Peppino de Filippo will please just about everyone. Fellini's trademark satire of Italian Catholicism is given full rein here, and it's a joy to watch.

The Visconti sketch has two great assets: Romy Schneider is in the full bloom of her youth and plays the frustrated wife so well. Tomas Milian, a Cuban-American actor seemed born to play the spoiled playboy Count; he's resentful of having to sponge off his rich father-in-law, and unwilling to grant his wife the freedom she needs.

Last and not quite least is De Sica: he's got Loren but alas he hasn't got a real story. We don't care about this raffle, about the villagers who scoot along in their Vespas, about Loren's poverty--no one can believe she never went to school.

My rating is 6; the excellence of Fellini and Visconti is somewhat offset by the mediocrity of the others.

What superlatives can really be added to the directors of this film that haven't already been used! Certainly, too, the acting is top rate. Loosely "based upon the 'Tales of the Decameron' written by Boccaccio," this film "updates" (from 14th century!)and brings alive the passion, the tragedy, the humor that Boccaccio and friends sought to "while away their time as the Plague ravaged Florence below"! Certainly any film that features Signorina Loren can't be all bad; ditto with Eckberg and Schneider--what a lovely trinity! Alas, seeing this film today is very, very difficult, as it hasn't been released for general consumption (as far as I know). Pity. It's a great film, even after 39 years!

In the middleages Giovanni Boccaccio wrote the Decamerone, a collection of erotic stories. In 1971 Pier Paolo Pasolini would make a film called "Il Decameron" containing nine stories.

Nine years earlier 4 Italian directors would also make a film loosely based on the stories of the Decamerone, and they called it (after the writer) "Boccaccio 70". The film had a length of 3 hours and 25 minutes, and for the commercial release the story of Mario Monicelli was deleted. There remained a film of about two and a half hours with contributions of Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica.

The three remaining stories are very different but they all relate to the three word pairs: Man versus woman, love versus sex and morality versus hypocrisy.

It is striking that al directors cast there favorite actress. Fellini works with Anita Ekberg, with whom he already had made "La dolce vita" (1960). Visconti selected Romy Schneider with whom he would later make "Ludwig" (1973). De Sica casted Sophia Loren, with whom he collaborated his whole career.

Not only are the actresses more famous than the actors in all three episodes, the female characters they portray are also stronger than the male characters in all three episodes. The male characters either hunger for or are afraid of sex.

Maybe not all three episodes are masterpieces, but they are sure worth watching. Different as they are it is difficult for me to select a favorite episode.

I've seen "Boccaccio" just few days ago and so I can express my fresh opinion of it. And I have seen FOUR segments of it - including "Renzo e Luciana" of Monicelli which is quite good. It puts some accent on social criticism and tells about young consorts that due to their poverty and constrained conditions have to bear many difficulties in their family life. The second of Fellini I almost forced myself to look to the end - I'm not fond of big bust and hips like ones of Ekberg. This segment seemed to me too flashy and tasteless (just imagine the plump Cupidon with the silky wings and nuns in the paper burlesque frock)though it's main idea concerning with the sexual complexes that obsess the most convinced moralists is very clear. I regret to write this as I didn't expect such a disappointment from Fellini whom I esteem much for his wonderful "Le notti di Cabiria". The third segment - 'Il Lavoro" ( The job) - is the most exquisite, thoughtful, plastic and stylish. Here Visconti tried to subject to his rigorous analysis the question of what lies in the base of a modern marriage. It's also the story of a young well-off little woman ( Romy Schneider) that one day faces the necessity of earning money by her own (thanks to her light-minded husband's behavior) and understand that she has nothing to offer in this men's world except her body. Romy dressed up by Chanel is very sexual (but when I use this word it means something very far from vulgar, something surrounded with the mist of secret and desire) and touching; after the number of the roles of cheerful ingenuous girls she for the first time found the image suiting her real abilities and qualities. The forth segment is "La riffa" (The raffle) be de Sica. De Sica made some good film in the time of realism but then yielded to the commercial cinema and seemed to be unable for the more or less significant criticism. Thus his segment is very light and benevolent with a lot of spicy humor and a lot of Loren

Sophia Loren as the prize in The Raffle and Anita Eckberg as the model on a milk billboard a prude must censor had me laughing every time. Film was truly a great work of art.

Without doubt over long at almost three and a half hours but easily watched in parts. I watched the first three segments and the fourth later and this, I understand was never included outside Italy anyway and is not quite as enchanting as the rest. The opening part from Fellini is impressive, with wonderful colour, movement and imaginative and surreal moments. Despite the presence of Anita Ekberg, however, it does begin to tire and for a short film begin to seem rather long. I really enjoyed the Visconti contribution and the wonderful performance from Rome Schneider in particular. It is good to see Tomas Milian in an early role but he is rather overshadowed here. Against my expectations, I particularly enjoyed the de Sica item featuring a masterful performance from Sophia Loren. I particularly liked the dubious illegal lottery for sex element and all the fairground vehicles and rides but it has to be said that even if Loren cannot act like the sultry and bewitching Schneider she certainly has a an amazing physical presence. Overall, charming, colourful and revealing of early 60s Italian sex foibles.