Boccaccio '70

Boccaccio '70
Original Poster
Directed by Vittorio De Sica
Luchino Visconti
Federico Fellini
Mario Monicelli
Produced by Carlo Ponti
Tonino Cervi
Written by Suso Cecchi D'Amico
Mario Monicelli
Italo Calvino, Giovanni Arpino, Tullio Pinelli
Federico Fellini
Ennio Flaiano
Luchino Visconti
Cesare Zavattini
Starring Anita Ekberg
Romy Schneider
Sophia Loren
Marisa Solinas
Music by Nino Rota
Armando Trovaioli
Release date
 February 22, 1962
Running time
 150 minutes (release with 3 segments)
208 min (Italian version with all four segments)
Country Italy
Language German/Italian

Boccaccio '70 is a 1962 Italian anthology film produced by Carlo Ponti and directed by Mario Monicelli, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica, from an idea by Cesare Zavattini. It is an anthology of four episodes, each by one of the directors, all about a different aspect of morality and love in modern times, in the style of Giovanni Boccaccio.

Cast

The four original episodes were:

The first episode, by Monicelli, was only included in the Italian distribution of the film. Out of solidarity towards Monicelli, the other three directors did not go to the Cannes Film Festival for the presentation of the film.

Plot

In Renzo e Luciana (Renzo and Luciana), a young couple tries to hide their marriage and the wife’s supposed pregnancy from the draconian rules at their place of employment, which has banned female employees from getting married and having children. Their efforts - both at the home the two share (they have temporarily moved into her family's tiny, crowded apartment, which affords them no privacy), and at work (where the pair go so far as to pretend they do not even know each other) - causes pressure to mount on the couple. Their hope is to make it through until they have managed to save some money to move out, and are dependent on Renzo going to night school to become an accountant.

In Le Tentazioni del Dottor Antonio (The Temptation of Dr Antonio), Dr Antonio Mazzuolo, a middle-aged man, has taken it upon himself to be the protector of Rome's morality from what he sees as vice and immorality throughout the city. The doctor (in his mini-Fiat, equipped with a police spotlight) wages his one-man crusade - shining the spotlight at lovers in parked cars, or bounding onstage of a cabaret, like a one-man vice squad, ordering the stage crew (which includes a smilling police officer) to shut the lights, as he closes the curtain behind a line of bewildered-looking chorus girls. He admonishes the audience to 'go home, and spend (their) money' in a 'better way instead of seeing this filth.' His anger knows no bounds when a provocative billboard of Anita Ekberg with the tag line "drink more milk" is put up in a park near his residence. Little does he know how the billboard will impact his life. Throughout the film, children are heard singing the jingle; "Bevete più latte, bevete più latte!" ("Drink more milk!")

The image begins to haunt him with hallucinations in which she appears as a temptress and Dr. Antonio, as St. George to spear the dragon, is pursued and captured by the buxom Swedish star in a deserted Rome and at one point, his umbrella falls between her breasts.

Il Lavoro (The Job) is about an aristocratic couple coming to terms with life and marriage after the domineering husband is caught visiting prostitutes by the press.

In La Riffa (The Raffle), a timid lottery winner is entitled to one night with the attractive Zoe (Sophia Loren). Zoe, however, has other plans.

Artistic legacy

An orchestrated version of the song "Bevete più latte," from Le Tentazioni del Dottor Antonio, was one of 13 tracks, recorded by Italian band Piccola Orchestra Avion Travel and arranged by Fabrizio France, for their 2009 album "Nino Rota, L'Amico Magico," released to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1979 death of composer Nino Rota.[1]

References

  1. ↑ ""Nino Rota, L'Amico Magico" at". Last.fm. 2012-07-04. Retrieved 2012-08-03.
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