La cicala

Alberto Lattuada is an interesting director. He was a serious and respected director in the early 1960's responsible for films like "Guendalina" and "Dulce Enganni", but by the late 70's he was wallowing in sleaze as much as any other Italian director, just in a more serious and artistic way. This film is called "La Cicala" ("the Cricket") which is the nickname of Clio Goldsmith's character. However, Goldsmith is probably the least interesting character here (except,of course, when she takes her clothes off). The main character really is her best friend, "Wilma" (Verna Lisi), a washed-up singer and former prostitute who marries a good-natured and well-off truck-driver "Ulysses" (Anthony Franciosa), who opens a truck stop/restaurant for her to run, which she names after her friend (even though "La Cicala" doesn't exactly seem like the best name for a restaurant). Unfortunately, "Wilma" is still very self-absorbed and more than a little promiscuous, especially with the flattering truck driver "suitors" who are always hanging around when her "Ulysses" is away. Things don't come to a head though until her resentful teenage daughter (Babara DeRossi) shows up, and mother and daughter begin to sexually compete for men with the not-exactly-virginal-herself "Cicala" caught in the middle. It all leads to murder and a lot of other lurid melodrama.

While this has far better acting than your usual exploitation movie, especially by former A-list actress Lisi, I don't know that it's exactly a realistic portrayal of the relationship between the three women so much as it is a lurid male fantasy. The three women are all pretty unsympathetic but incredibly sexy, and all the men are little more than hapless pawns in their games. I can't really see most women enjoying this very much, and the enjoyment for men will probably depend on how much blood rushes from their brains to other parts of their anatomy (which could be quite a bit given these three actresses). The "Homer's Odyssey in a truck stop" theme would be pretty creative if the much less talented French hack/auteur Jean-Marie Pallardy hadn't pretty much done the exact same thing a year earlier with "Truck Stop".

One thing's for sure--while Lattuada may have been a shadow of his former self by the late 70's, he still knew how to make a very sexy movies, and it helped it greatly that he worked with actresses like the ones here or Natassia Kinski and Ania Peroni (in his most famous late 70's film "Stay the Way You Are") or Teresa Ann Savoy (in his rather disturbing film "Le Faro de Padre"). His respected former status also gave him access to talented (if a bit past their prime) actors like Lisi, Franciosa, and Marcello Mastroanni ("Stay the Way You Are"). This is a bit too arty for an exploitation film and too exploitative for an art film, but it is a pretty interesting combination of two.

Virna Lisi plays Wilma, a travelling singer, who's known by patrons as much for her sexual techniques as she is for her cabaret vocalizations. Already in her late 40's, she's not faring well on the prostitution path of life when her fortune takes a turn after meeting Clio Goldsmith. Goldsmith is first introduced as a brainless nymphet confessing to a priest that she can't stop "doing" it. Naturally, the viewer's inclination, right at the start of the film, is to brace themselves for another one of those Italian "comedies" where portly, ugly men grope young, beautiful girls, and somewhere in Turin, they're rolling in the aisles with cacophonous laughter.

However, once the story gets underway, far more adult machinations begin to take place. Lisi and Goldsmith encounter Anthony Franciosa, a self-made businessman who owns a roadside gas stop, complete with bed and breakfast and billiards. Quicker than a reel change, Lisi and Franciosa are hitched and are living the fun life running the immense truck stop. Limp quips and leering drivers fill the middle half of the film, but when Lisi's 17-year old daughter appears, things get twisted in a carnal and deadly way before we see it coming. Soon, Lisi is the neglected wife, jealous of her long-lost daughter's assets, which leads to grave results for practically everyone.

Because of this left turn in tone and storytelling, "La Cicala" rises above the humorless romp of '80s Italian comedies and presents us with a far more meatier subject matter. Of course, this somber change in tone doesn't divert the director from incessantly focusing his lens at every curve of Ms. Goldsmith's and Ms. De Rossi's naked bodies with every exploitative moment he can wring from their performance. The direction is obviously rather amateurish, however, the technical crew (photography, lighting, etc.) and acting (particularly old pros Lisi, Franciosa, and good ol' standby Renato) lend this production more gravity and polish than it necessarily deserves.

If you're in the need for a love triangle soap opera, you will find all the necessary ingredients to satisfy your taste in "La Cicala." My rating: ** out of ****.