Malícia

"Malizia" was a big hit in 1973 -it launched Laura Antonelli's career and established the reputation of director Salvatore Samperi, an "iconoclast" film-maker (he started "erotic" comedies, which teased Italian sexual taboos...!)

The film is not vulgar at all. It tells the story of a young maid, Angela, who works in a house for a widow and his sons. One of them will conquer, a teenanger who's discovering sexual instincts, will blackmail and conquer her...

It is a very elegant picture, superbly photographed by Vittorio Storaro. It takes place in Sicily, the family is very bourgeois and society very conservative. Samperi and screenwriter Ottavio Jemma choose to adapt this "sexual" comedy in this context, in order to create a contrast.

The film won several prices and critics praised the picture. Today "Malizia" is quite old, it is a typical Seventies movie -it was made after '68, after the breakup of many sexual and morals frontiers, it is a provocative opus, very provocative. But never vulgar, as I said. An Italian classic.

This movie epitomizes the dreams of many young bucks--having your way with the sexy nanny. I don't believe, however, that this movie should be categorized as a Comedy... it's not the kind of movie you should watch with your family, but it's a great reminder of the animal in all of us.

Cult film that despite its fame did not strike me very much indeed I found the relationship between the young scion of the family and the housekeeper too morbid, especially since hers will end up marrying her father.

Although this movie is ostensibly a comedy, I personally found it pretty perverse and disturbing at times. Laura Antonelli is a maid who comes to work for a grieving widower and his rather disturbed adolescent son. She soon finds herself engaged to marry the widower but at the same time being sexually black-mailed by the son. She finds a way to turn the tables on the latter (although you'll hardly feel to sorry for him).

The idea of a young boy losing his virginity to his stepmother-to-be seems pretty perverse, especially today, but there's also a scene where the boy and his overweight friend spy on the latter's slumbering and half-nude sister (who he later takes on memorably sexy bike ride). The sister is played by a young Tina Aumont, so you not only get a double dose of incest but a little Lolita with your Madonna.

This is the movie that made Antonelli an international sex star and features the famous scene where she's standing on a ladder in a short skirt and no underwear, but frankly she's a lot more memorable in other films I've seen like "Venus in Furs", "The Divine Nymph", "The Venetian Lady", and even Lucio Fulci's "The Eroticist". This also doesn't really quite make it as a comedy (although these dark and perverse continental variations are almost always preferable to the painfully unfunny American and British variety). It functions somewhat as a coming-of-age film I guess, even if the disturbed young protagonist isn't necessarily a very sympathetic character. You could do worse I suppose.

If you enjoy rapid-fire wit this film pleases like few others. Unfortunately some versions of English subtitles do not capture many of the best lines. There is some full frontal nudity at the end but most of the eroticism and comedy comes from two of the three brothers who are being driven crazy by the hot new maid, through no fault of her own. The youngest boy is also funny as the oblivious locomotive not interested in propriety. The father and two brothers fall in love and lust and while she is trying to be loyal to the widower dad, one of his sons cannot stop provoking and enticing her. He is also the most interesting character suffering with raging hormones, inexperience and a Machiavellian streak.