Como Perder uma Mulher e Arranjar uma Amante

One of the most horribly annoying clichés in Hollywood romantic comedies is the "meet cute", where characters who are going to fall in love later, "meet" under the most contrived circumstances imaginable. I'm not sure when this cliché originated (or when it was dubbed with the stupid, nonsensical term "meet cute"), but I think it largely happened after the era of this Italian movie. What's interesting though is this movie is pretty much an entire series of often funny and increasingly ridiculous "meet cute" encounters between an optometrist (Johnny Dorelli)and a devoted wife (Barbara Bouchet), who have both been betrayed by their respective spouses. They first have a car accident where their cars end up "stuck" to each other, then later wind up in the hospital together after bizarre accidents , then go to the same ski resort in the Alps, and then in the most hilariously ridiculous scene are both thought dead and are given last rights by a senile priest who accidentally marries them instead!

You'd think as someone with a healthy dislike of "meet cutes" and "rom-coms" in general, I wouldn't like this at all, but I actually did. It's NOT a romantic comedy, which tries to turn an absurd meeting into a believable story of romance, it's just a ridiculous and fun screwball sex comedy where the characters are not even going to get together until the very end, and for most of the movie they're just ships passing in the night--who keep hilariously crashing into each other. There's also A LOT of nudity, which is something that would make Hollywood rom-coms marginally less insufferable, but which they never seem to contain. It pretty much involves all the female cast (and a lot of the male cast), but the most memorable is Barbara Bouchet herself (take that Katherin Heigl!) and Stefania Cassini, a cult actress more typical known for horror movies and Andy Warol films, who plays the Bouchet character's sexy best friend.

Pasquale Festa Campanile is one the best Italian sex comedy directors, who has also found a lot of success outside the genre in gialli thrillers ("Hitchhike") and serious dramas ("The Girl from Trieste"). Johnny Dorelli is a decent comedy actor, not as good as some (Land0 Buzzanca, Renzo Motagnini), but less annoying than others (Alvaro Vitali). Interestingly, he later married to Gloria Guida, who many considered a younger version of Barbara Bouchet (except she was Italian with bleach-blonde hair and had a little more voluptuous baby fat on her). Maybe he's a little homely to really be the most believable romantic lead, but he's better than Adam Sandler (who would make a remarkably similar film years later with "50 First Dates"). Recommended,

Those were the days ... when you could make jokes about nudity and all kinds of different things ... all kidding aside, there are some very disturbing themes here, that are being used as comedy tropes ... I would not be surprised if some feel this is quite sexist. And while men are being portrayed as helpless (to their own horniness to name one of their flaws), it is mostly the women that are being objectified.

Still there is some charm in all those involved - and if you can accept this as a movie of its time, you may be able to laugh at most of the jokes. Depending on your understanding and acceptance even those of adultery and forced sex - the latter is completely ridiculous, especially considering that the characters involved are shown to have been fully clothed, the whole time ... not sure if that takes anything away or makes it better for some.

Again, I will not tell anyone how to feel about what they might watch - I am telling what there is and that this is far removed from PC and woke culture of today ... stereotypes and cliches en masse.

In the 1970s, the Italians made use of relaxed censorship conditions by considerably sexing up their comedies - even slapstick comedies such as this one. This process sometimes helped staging intrinsically sexual situations (e.g. a cheating spouse caught in the act), but more commonly was exploited to add gratuitous nudity.

Most of these sexy comedies from that era had slapstick elements of some form, but this movie goes further and shifts the balance towards slapstick. In other words, we have here a sexy comedy but also a slapstick comedy. There is a problem when these subgenres are combined, and it is: pace. Slapstick requires actions to be fast and furious, but erotic elements need a much slower pace to work best. This film implements a corresponding shift of gear to accommodate both moods, but the shift itself is at times abrupt and unconvincing.

Johnny Dorelli is much more bearable than the usual comedy males of the genre (Alvaro Vitali, Lino Banfi, Gianfranco D'Angelo, etc.), or at least his brand of humour travels better - he is less of a clown and more of a comic actor. Female lead Barbara Bouchet plays it straight, but she had hardly a choice - Italian comedies of that time use women as objects of adoration, not to carry the comedic elements.

The overall result does not quite work, but does not completely fail either. The unusual combinations of moods leaves it as an interesting curiosity.