Boccaccio '70

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

Specifically for film lovers,like myself, who only ever got to watch this collection (minus the first segment) on late-late night commercial TV- run out and get a copy of this remastered version. To watch this as it was originally intended- the work of some of Italy's finest directors- is a joy. As for which segment is the best... it's hard to say...Fellini's segment is better than I remembered it...and who could ever forget Anita Ekberg...in truth I have a fondness for all these Italian films I saw in my youth that makes objectivity hard.P.S.: Of course, the same must be said for Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow-also reissued- I nearly cried at how good the print was.

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'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