Signore & signori

The Italian Comedy of the Sixties has been internationally recognised as one of the most innovative and original cinema genres produced in that decade. This forgotten movie stands as one of the best examples of such genre. Three stories from the same bunch of middle aged guys from the North of Italy (the nice location is Treviso) are portrayed in this very enjoyable comedy. It is an almost Fellinesque movie, in the sense that it is grotesque, funny and clever at the same time. It mainly is a satire on the human relationships and the hypocrisy of people. Obviously all of this is depicted in a totally hilarious "Italian way". The actresses are simply irresistible (Virna Lisi looks awesome!), the actors very convincing, the story simply too good compared to nowadays scripts, while music, photography and direction are almost perfect. It won the Palme D'Or at the Cannes Film Festival together with "Un homme une famme". To be rediscovered. a convinced 10/10.

The entire film had a farcical quality and was generally comical enough to hold my interest, but something deeper in the second vignette began to bubble up to the surface. There was a longing, not quite a sadness, but an extremely emotionally complex situation where you can sympathize with everyone and all points of view. I feel like I was pleasantly fooled. I expected a burger, which would have been fine, but they brought me a steak instead.

Pietro Germi only directed 19 movies, but he was obviously very talented. I've seen a few of his other films and those were satisfyingly complex as well.

The male love interest in the second vignette was played by Gastone Moschin. He didn't strike me at first as the best choice for the role, but he executed it brilliantly. Virna Lisi is always stunning, but I didn't realize what a good actress she was until I saw the extremely sympathetic character she played, and she nailed it perfectly. Nora Ricci was top notch as the wife. She was able to very skillfully balance between an over the top shrew, and as someone the audience can feel for.

There was one other thing in the movie that I thought was great. There was a short running gag regarding the jilted wife that led into a different short running gag regarding boys making prank calls. I don't recall ever seeing anything like that before.

The very last scene with everyone gathered in the town square was quite poignant.

I definitely recommend this movie.

It might take an Italian background to appreciate this film. As a non-Italian viewer I found the humour (high farce) rather dull.

The film had almost no characterization, a rather muddy plot line and absolutely no emotional interest. I tuned out constantly, and was glad for distractions.

The third line of the anthology, about the sexual interest of a group of men in a young girl was particularly uncomfortable, with its pedophile themes, which Germi unpleasantly treated as though only humorous, not at all troubling.

The overall perspective was purely male — the women in the film were simply either objects of desire or impediments to desire's fulfillment.

I wouldn't bother watching this film again.

According to the veteran Italian film director Ettore Scola,Italian people have the intrinsic knack of ridiculing themselves long before someone else can dare to point a figure at them.For them there is hardly any human sentiment which cannot be mocked.By doing so they have remained the champions of auto derision in this world.This is one fundamental quality which distinguishes them from the other nationalities of Europe.As far as a discussion on this film goes,its English title "The birds,The bees and The Italians" does perfect justice to the spirit of the film. The entire film is a laugh riot and the best thing about the screenplay is that although the depicted situations might appear common place but they never leave any room for any kind of guess work or speculation.So the end result is an intelligent film which entertains until the maximum possible extent of human enjoyment. Even the black and white photography is advantageous as it alludes to a time when there was too little advancement of technology. Recommended for those people who would like to have a nice laugh but would not dare to copy under any circumstances the actions portrayed in the film.

Who knew Treviso was the place to live, if you fancied a bit of good old-fashioned infidelity? The town is positively writhing in pudgy middle-aged gentlemen who drink excessively then routinely cheat on their wives and sweethearts. There are three inter-connected stories here that follow the licentious behaviour of these citizens. The first gent, "Gasparini" (Alberto Lionello) is married to the the somewhat imperious "Ippolita" (Olga Villi) and he has been claiming impotence to avoid fulfilling his conjugal duties. He confides this problem to his doctor "Castellan" (Gigi Ballista) only he doesn't expand upon the fact that this is a feint not only to deter his wife, but also to distract the physician from his interest in that man's wife "Noemi" (Beba Loncar). When "Castellan" goes blabbing about this to his café friends, though, he inadvertently plays into the hands of his rival and ends up with quite a bit of egg on his face. Meantime, henpecked bank clerk "Bisgato" (Gastone Moschin) is constantly being berated by his wife (Nora Ricci) for lacking in ambition and despite her frequent interventions is repeatedly told by his employers - relatives of "Ippolita" - that he's paid what he's worth. He's a bit naive, is poor old "Bisgato" for he has fallen in love with "Milena" (Virna Lisi) and the thrust of the best comedic elements of the film come from this man's determination to escape from what he sees as the martial yoke. Cheating is one thing, moving out - well that's something altogether different. Then finally, we meet the young "Alda" (Patrizia Valturri) whose arrival on the scene sets the cat amongst these elderly pigeons even more. That is until her father (Carlo Bagno) declares that she is but a minor, and that the police are going to be investigating charges of statutory rape. Now these men are going to have to scream for help - but whom can they run to, though? There's a great deal of music throughout this and for the most part it works well in helping to sustain the frenetic pace, the frantically delivered dialogue and the almost slapstick nature of these men"s behaviour, adventures and peccadilloes. Along the way, the storylines shine an humorous light on many of the stereotypical attitudes that prevailed amongst the permanently horny menfolk and amongst their equally stoic, and often quite relieved, spouses. Sex is never far from the plot, neither is jealousy nor pantomime and the dynamic between Moschin and Lisi, supported by the on-form Lionello and Ricci present us with a not so subtle evaluation of the hypocrisies of modern Italian suburban life where the Christian doctrines of marriage and respect are honoured much more in the breach than the observance. There are three distinctly separate episodes here, but by the last half hour they have all melded together into something that rarely comes up for breath, and that I quite enjoyed.