 Boccaccio ’70 is a spectacle of a
film. Four of Italy’s best directors (Monicelli, Fellini,
Visconti and De Sica) each make a short film full of wit,
zest and sex appeal in homage to 14th century writer Giovanni
Boccaccio.With a combined runtime of well over three hours,
Carlo Ponti, the producer of this event, decided to remove
Monicelli’s segment. Soon, scandal erupted. Other Italian
masters, including Michelangelo Antonioni,decided to start
a boycott of the film. In order to make amends, Ponti offered
to finance Monicelli’s story into a feature length film.
This cooled the boycott even though that film was never made.
Now, for the first time ever in America, NoShame gives us
the original Italian release of the film with all four acts
to be viewed and judged as originally intended. So let’s
take a look at the shorts that await us.
Mario
Monicelli’s “Renzo & Luciana” (42:54)
The first segment was the short never before shown in America.
Of all four, it is quite easy to see why they would choose
to remove this one. It is a cute story of two lovers who work
in the same office together. Luciana (the adorable Marisa
Solinas) is obligated to stay unmarried or she would lose
her job. She marries Renzo (Germano Gilioli) in secret, but
the two of them have to live together under her parents’
roof, drastically reducing their “alone-time.”
Meanwhile, Luciana’s boss has taken quite an admiration
towards her and refuses to stop making advances.
This has a typical, almost American, 60s sitcomish flair. The remaining
acts have much more of a visual and dramatic punch to them. The segment
isn’t poor; it just lacks a punch, or in fact a real driving
force, to make it as incredible as what follows.
 Frederico
Fellini’s “The Temptation of Dr. Antonio” (53:34)
The first Fellini film ever shot in color. It is about an
extremely prudish and well-admired community leader (Peppino
De Filippo) who is constantly bothered by all the “smut
peddling” that is going on around him. This is shown
to an absurd degree when he chastises a newsstand operator
for having swimsuit model pin-ups on display. It seems that
any bare-skin is too much for poor Dr. Antonio – Being
in a Fellini film, this places him in the worst possible position.
Enter a huge billboard showcasing the tremendously endowed
Anita Ekberg (from Fellini’s La Dolce Vita) hawking,
of all things, milk. This billboard is placed in perfect viewing
position of Antonio’s apartment and so he starts a one-man
crusade to get it removed. As time goes by he becomes haunted
by the seductive Anita and eventually she comes to life –
all 50 feet of her!
This is the most comedic of all the chapters. The commentary here
is that the biggest prudes are the most obsessive and there is nothing
subtle about how this message gets delivered. Still, seeing Antonio
go steadily insane chasing after a 50-foot Ekberg is a joy. There
is one moment of “4th wall” breaking which is very quick
and a nice surreal nod. The whole thing serves as a grand ode to
the seductive power of the female species.
 Luchino
Visconti’s “The Job” (52:50)
Far and away this is the most dramatic film of the lot. Conte
Ottavio (Tomas Milian) is caught by tabloids frequenting a
bordello. This causes much hoopla in the family as to how
they are going to combat the situation. To make things worse
Ottavio’s wife, Pupe (Romy Schneider), has disappeared
for two days and no one, not even her father, knows where
she has gone. When she finally reappears she is well aware
of the scandal and threatens to file for a separation, and
mentions how she wants to take up a new occupation.
What follows is a battle of wits showing a woman trying to evaluate
her place in a relationship based entirely on her husband’s
reactions to her questions. She is the driving force in the conversation
but is intentionally allowing Ottavio to decide where it ends. The
ending is extremely powerful and emotional – certainly the
most dramatic of the four. Romy is stunning and in less than an hour
it is fantastic how she is able to demonstrate almost every emotion
in a woman’s spectrum, and delivers it all convincingly. Far
and away the best short in this anthology.
 Vittorio
De Sica’s “The Raffle” (48:14)
Sophia Loren stars as Zoe, a shooting gallery barker that
prostitutes herself on the side with a raffle that coincides
with the Naples lottery. She does this, of course, for pure
enough reasons. She is trying to help her pregnant sister
and brother-in-law out of debt. This segment starts as a light
comedy featuring her brother-in-law chasing men about the
fair in order to sell his tickets. These men then chase Zoe
around stealing a glance at what they have a chance of winning
if fate leans in their direction. But before the evening’s
lottery is drawn Zoe meets a man who charms her legitimately.
The law-of-scriptwriting dictates that this man find out the
real reason that she can’t go out with him that night
and it leads to her being on the receiving end of a face slapping.
Meanwhile, she still has to satisfy the mousy companion who
has won an evening’s worth of entertainment.
Without giving away the ending, it is difficult to explain
why I was not impressed at all with the direction that this
story went. But the ending is very unsatisfying and goes against
the structure of the other three stories. I did like the setup
here, and the goddess that is Sophia Loren never disappoints
in delivering the goods. The little control that her character
offers over her situation is a disappointment compared to
the other women in their respective segments.
All together now
Boccaccio ’70 has its highs and lows. The acting in all four shorts is wonderful
and each director is able to show off their own distinct style.
This makes for a lovely showcase of all four directors, both
for those familiar and experiencing them for the first time.
Italians are known for their idyllic presentations of women,
and Boccaccio ’70 is a celebration
of this. Often this is shown at the expense of the males involved,
making the men either bumbling idiots or more chauvinistic.
For the most part though, I tend to agree with this. Nothing
can affect a man more than a woman and here are four stories
that show this better than most. The first two are more comical
and with charm, and the last two are much more dramatic.
 Presentation
This movie looks fantastic.
No doubt in order to maximize resolution NoShame decided to
split the movie on two discs. Monicello and Fellini’s
chapters are on the first disc and Visconti and De Sica’s
are on the second disc along with the extras. Any move that
is made to improve the presentation of a film is going to
get a thumbs-up from me. Unlike NoShame’s other recent
release Story of a Love Affair,
there is nothing on this set mentioning any sort of involved
remastering process. The case does mention it is digitally
remastered from the vault original interpositive. Nevertheless,
it looks superb. The video is a 1.66:1 anamorphic presentation,
and never once does the image flinch for any reason. Audio
is available in your choice of Italian or English Mono. As
usual, you should never even think about watching an English
dub of a foreign film. The subtitles are easy to read and,
for the most part, seem to match up well. This was taken from
a PAL transfer, so speedup is present, but most people probably
wouldn’t notice it if not told ahead of time.
Extras
U.S. Main Titles – (1:46) - These are the American main titles and transitions
and introductions to the acts. They have a very swinging-sixties
style that is not used in the classier Italian cut of the
film. I prefer the theatre curtains approach used originally.
An interesting note is that they do not have the transition
for De Sica’s “The Raffle” which makes me
wonder how it was joined with the other two.
Photo gallery - These are a series of stills and photos from the
four different segments accompanied by their respective soundtrack.
Also, there are poster and gallery cards as well as photos
from the American premiere.
- “Renzo & Luciana” – (26 stills, 2:09)
- “The Temptation of Dr. Antonio” – (47 stills,
3:54)
- “The Job” – (58 stills, 4:49)
- “The Raffle” – (25 stills, 2:04)
- Posters – (26 stills, 2:09)
- The American Premiere – (70 stills, 5:49)
Trailers - You get the U.S. trailer (2:20) and the Italian trailer
(4:55) for the feature. The American trailer naturally does
not have anything on the Monicelli segment.
 Archival
Footage
De Sica Speaks (0:52)
Far too short, but De Sica explains the background of “The
Raffle.” Apparently it was based on a true happening.
This short obviously recorded for television only wanted me
to learn more.
Sadly, that is all the insight we get into this wonderful film.
I would have liked to have seen something of a retrospective, but
we do get a wonderful presentation that no one in their right mind
would have any business to complain about. I’m sure materials
for this semi-obscure film would be difficult to find, and I am sure
NoShame included everything they could obtain.
Also packaged in the set is a VERY thick 14-page insert.
It folds out and does include much discussion on the Monicelli
chapter and the “scandal” surrounding the films
release. Several of these pages are devoted to showing additional
promotional materials, the best of which is the Polish poster.
(Polish posters are always incredible.) So, for lack
of video material, NoShame delivers on the text – I
can deal with that.
Fine
No one knows classic sex appeal
like the Italians, and only the French even come close.
Boccaccio ’70 is a fantastic collection
of four very thematically different directors celebrating
women at the expense of themselves, and it is such a joy to
watch each take on this theme. If you love any of the director’s
you must see this film. If you are interested in seeing what
Italian cinema is all about then you must see this film. Actually,
if you are a fan of foreign films in general Boccaccio
’70 is not to be missed at all. The
Fellini and Visconti films alone are worth the low price of
this two-disc set. It is a privilege to finally have this
available in America and I hope that NoShame brings even more
obscure and important films to us in the future.
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