Prudência e a Pílula

I'm not sure what exactly attracted me to check out Prudence and the Pill. Partly is was the cast David Niven and Deborah Kerr, and also I was very curious about how a British comedy might handle this type of material. After a slightly interesting opening credits sequence we get down to business. It's all a bit silly really, but that seems to be the problem that it's only a bit silly when reality it needed a lot more silliness to pull this off and make it actually funny. As it is it's just slightly amusing at random bits throughout, but sadly for everyone involved it's more often slow and kind of dry. Not a completely unpleasant viewing experience for sure, it was somewhat watchable, just not as much as I had hoped for.

In movie after movie men & women regularly mate with each other without anyone ever fussing over contraception. This time however there's so much discussion of it you'd assume that the script by Hugh Mills was based on a play rather than on a novel (that he'd originally published in 1965). It certainly lends a new meaning to the description "oral sex" since all they ever appear to do is just talk about it; until the women suddenly all give birth en masse like the women of the village of Midwich.

The reality for women of taking contraceptive pills on a daily basis was seemingly a complete mystery to Mills, since he depicts them as indistinguishable from aspirins and dispensed by chemists in glass jars rather than individually in pop-out blister packs.

Despite it's rather desperate aim to be contemporary and "with it", the backdrop of extravagent wealth and its upper class characters simply heighten the generally pre-war feel of the thing.

This silly romp is quite entertaining and even adorable. Its a lot of fun.

I am not the type of person who takes marriage and infidelity lightly. My attitude us be single or be married. Well this IS a farce and it does show how the complications that arise from sneaking around make it hardly worth the trouble.

In the 1960's films often had opening credits where the painters type/artists could present an attractive package(Intolerable Cruelty{2003} reminded me of this).This was one and with good set designs this film gave a picture of background colour and warmth. This film is unreasonably remembered as poor but golden moments are Edith Evans walking across a motor racing track during a race.Then there was David Niven purchasing Aspirin at Timothy Whites as if purchasing something evil.The number of couples at the end gave the story depth only Deborah Kerr is disappointing but her part is not sympathetic.A welcome increase in the birth rate ended the film.

I found this one of the most hilarious movies, full of subtle, elegant, classy and witty British humour. A really complicated argument develops itself very intelligently and in a smooth way through the film. Deborah Kerr and David Niven, as well as the rest of the cast, display their professionalism and talent at its best in this movie and consolidates their status as Stars in the whole sense of the word. It shows how a film can be witty and sexual without having to resort to the worn-out trick of out-of-context nudity, and it should be an example for twenty first century film makers. The acting is superb as it is the story. The copyright owners Thoroughly enjoyable, although due to the story it must be kept rated as it is.