Boccaccio '70

Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti: these renowned Italian film directors tell stories of love and gender relations in their contemporary society in a captivating episodic film. The independent episodes, featuring a stellar cast including Anita Ekberg, Romy Schneider, and Sophia Loren, are reminiscent of Giovanni Boccaccio's “Decameron”—satirical, socially critical, often erotically charged, and always with an ironic view of morality and hypocrisy. With “Le Tentazione del Dottor Antonio” (“The Temptation of Dr. Antonio”), Federico Fellini has succeeded in creating a satirical, colorful, typically Fellini-esque grotesque about prudery and repression: In it, the morally strict Dr. Antonio is haunted by a larger-than-life poster advertising milk featuring the voluptuous Anita Ekberg. The more he preaches against it, the more he develops an obsessive fantasy about the figure on the poster – until his moral zeal turns into hallucinations and madness. Luchino Visconti's “Il Lavoro” (“The Job”) is a calm, elegant chamber drama about power, money, and emotional emptiness in the aristocracy. After a scandal involving prostitutes in the press, a countess (Romy Schneider) faces public humiliation. She confronts her wealthy husband and declares that from now on she wants to work for him – as a paid wife. An attractive showgirl (Sophia Loren) is the “grand prize” in Vittorio De Sica's “La Riffa” (The Raffle): the winner gets to spend an evening with the young woman. The “lottery ticket” goes to a shy, poor worker. The episode plays with male fantasies, social inequality, and female self-determination—charming, but also a bit melancholic. The production originally consisted of four episodes. However, the first episode, Mario Monicelli's “Renzo e Luciana,” was cut from many international versions—unfortunately, this is also the case here. “Renzo e Luciana” introduces a young working-class couple who can only marry in secret because the employer fires all married women. The film humorously depicts the couple's attempts to balance their marriage and work, criticizing social constraints and the narrowness of the Italian economic miracle.