Boccaccio '70 (Remastered Edition) [DVD]

"Boccaccio '70", described as a "cinematic joke" by its makers and appearing on international screens in 1962, is a time capsule of outrageously sexist attitudes. Were one to seek a perfect example of the "male gaze" toward women in film, there is no more perfect example than "Boccaccio '70". Marketed largely on the fame of recent Oscar winner Sophia Loren in 1961 and produced by her husband Carlo Ponti as well as the notoriety of Anita Ekberg's sex goddess from " La Dolce Vita" (1959), this is a 4 episode film from 4 major Italian filmmakers. There are echoes, or better yet caricatures, of their other, far better, films. Those would be "81/2" for Fellini, " The Damned" or "The Leopard" for Visconti and "Two Women" for De Sica. There's also " Big Deal on Madonna Street" for Monicelli, the director of the first, dispensable episode.The contents of 3 of the 4 episodes on this disc involve the exploitation of women, with a wife (Romy Schneider) reduced to being a prostitute for her husband in an elegantly appointed home (vintage Visconti ) and a carnival barker (Loren ) becoming a raffle prize for her lecherous admirers. The colors, especially the skin tones of the performers, look quite good for a 1962 film rendered faithfully by Kino Lorber, which specializes in imports.. Sophia Loren, of course, photographs gorgeously in this representation from perhaps the best decade of her still ongoing (at age 86 ) career. "Two Women" and "Marriage Italian Style look even better placed alongside "Boccaccio "70".

This film I picked up more out of curiousity and because Fellini directs one of the viginettes. I had never seen any of the 4 mini films before, nor did I know of the controversy surrounding its universal release. Each film deals with sexuality in different ways. All of the films have impressive looking anamorphic transfers for being almost 45yrs old. There is English dubbed audio tracks though my copy kept switching back to Italian on its own.. English subtitles looked fine.All of the films looked great and are restored anamorphic transfers. The Fellini film was my favorite by far. This is his first feature using color as well as featuring dreams/fantasy in his films. I couldn't help think of Attack of the 50ft Woman seeing the charming Anita come to life off a billboard. This is as close to comedy as Fellini got , too bad he didn't explore this more often. Fellini's segment is almost an hour.The Visconti piece was lavishly produced and feautured a troubled wife trying to rekindle that spark. This takes place in a high class French styled mansion. Romy is nice to look at even if she is rather pathetic. This mini drama was the most serious of the 4 and rather depressing as it unfolded.The last two were rather light and forgetful even if Sophia Loren looked fabulous, and was omni present in her role as a carnival spinster with a change of heart.The extras are fun. Lots of on set pics and lobby cards , plus a large fold out booklet with press clippings and news reviews.The U.S. and Italian trailers are intresting to compare.If your a Fellini fan, you would do well to see this for his giantess fantasy alone!

Boccaccio '70 (Is "Boccaccio" Italian for something?) is an awesome movie by Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Mario Monicelli, and Luchino Visconti! FULLY UNCUT AND UNCENSORED!Four segments: The first segmant, Renzo E Luciana: ("Renzo And Luciana") by Mario Monicelli (43 mins), cut of the U.S. version to shorten the film and the only part cut out of the film, the second segmant: Le Tantazioni Del Dottor Antonio ("The Temptation Of Doctor Antonio") by Federico Fellini (53 mins), the third segmant: Il Lavoro ("The Job") by Luchino Visconti (53 mins), and the fourth segment: La Riffa ("The Raffle") by Vittorio De Sica (47 mins).Extras:Extensive poster & still gallery including photos from backstage and the U.S. premiere of the movieOriginal Italian, U.S. theatrical trailersArchival FootageOriginal U.S. main titlesCollectible booklet with liner notes and re-print of the rare original U.S. press book included (14 pg., REALLY REALLY COOL!, Why didn't it come with the collectibile booklet with liner notes and re-print of the rare original Italian press book? But who cares? It's still REALLY REALLY COOL!)Langauges: Italian Digital Dobly 2.0, English Digital Dobly 2.0Subtitles: English, English for some of the scenes that are in ItalianTwo discs: Disc one, "Renzo E Luciana" (Renzo & Luciana) and "Le Tentazioni Del Dottor Antonio" ("The Temtations Of Doctor Antonio"), disc two, "Il Lavoro" ("The Job"), Il Riffa ("The Raffle") and Extras. Both digital remastered from the vault original interpositive!REALLY REALLY COOL release by NoShame Films! This is my first pressbook I've ever have and my 3th NoShame Films release out 3 in my collection!

Renzo and Luciana was cut and we could've done better without it in Italian language only. It's a very long and talky story of a couple living together before marriage and the conflicts it creates with the girl's parents and her boss where she works. Almost a docudrama. Two stars.The Temptation of Dr. Antonio: Always my favorite satire on censorship from director Fellini about a prude's ambition to ban a milk billboard has great fantasy sequences with Anita Ekberg. Four Stars.The Job: A wealthy man has his affair with a hooker exposed by the media to his wife. She wants the job, too. The most cynical segment of the film. Three stars. The Raffle: By far the best of the four stories when Sophia Loren becomes the prize for a timid man who wins the lottery. It makes me laugh every time, even 30 years later. Four stars. There aren't many extras added to the discs, and they are mostly about The Raffle. You do have your choice of English or Italian for three of the stories.

Produced by Carlo Ponti in 1962, this suite of four stories named after the 14th century author Giovanni Boccaccio gives four very different snapshots of Italian life. They alternate between sad and humorous, two of each, with no obvious connecting thread apart from being Italian.Renzo and Luciana (Renzo e Luciana) – Mario MonicelliA quiet and rather sad film about two newly-married factory workers who have to hide their relationship from the managers because it's against regulations. They also lack any kind of privacy while living in the wife's family home. When a factory tyrant discovers their secret they both get the sack, but defiantly find new jobs and move to an apartment of their own. That doesn't work out too well either... It's not a particularly inspiring film but perfectly watchable first time around, and perhaps it would have had more impact at the time of its release in 1962.The temptation of Dr Antonio (Le tentazioni del dottor Antonio) – Federico FelliniUnmistakably Fellini right from the opening shots, this is his first film in colour and he uses it with glee. The story almost has the quality of a fairy tale, with a boo-hiss puritan villain who sees evil in every embrace or glimpse of flesh and who meets his nemesis in the form of Anita Ekberg. She first appears as a huge glamour icon on an advertising hording, but splendidly comes to life to torment, seduce and destroy him. Full of Fellini's trademark weird characters and little processions, it also has some wonderful shots such as the huge mechanical digger that trundles behind the villain as he's delivering a doomsday speech to a group of boy scouts. As well as being funny, this scene marks the beginning of his downfall.The job (Il lavoro) – Luchino ViscontiIs this Visconti's homage to his fellow-director Fellini's earlier film La Dolce Vita? Both are about the upper strata of Italian society, the rich who have no need to work and no interests other than entertaining themselves. They are bored out of their minds, in short, and extra-marital fun and games offer some relief to the tedium. Both of the main protagonists in this film are thoroughly dislikeable, although one can perhaps feel a touch of sympathy for Romy Schneider's character who vows to get a job but can't find anything she's capable of, except... well, it goes to show money doesn't buy happiness.The raffle (La riffa) – Vittorio De SicaYou get the impression De Sica enjoyed making this film. It's a silly but fun story about the sexy female owner (Sophia Loren) of a fairground shooting booth who, faced with a huge bill for unpayed tax, offers herself as a raffle prize for a one-night stand. The ticket agent sets a high price but with only 70 tickets available there is no shortage of takers. This bright idea begins to unravel when she accepts the attentions of a handsome young suitor who decides she is nobody's prize but his. The fairground setting and larger-than-life characters place this film more in the realm of fantasy than romantic comedy - a moral tale with a sense of humour.

I bought this DVD because I am interested in the work of the director Luchino Visconti. But this movie of four-films-in-one, each separate film directed by a different Italian (the others are Mario Monicelli, Federico Fellini, and Vittorio de Sica) under overall producer Carlo Ponti, has proved to be an interesting and valued purchase for all four movies.Produced in 1962 as a take on modern romance in the style of the Renaissance poet Boccaccio's `Decameron', I can understand why the original film may not have been hot box office material when it was first released. Despite featuring some of the hottest Italian and international stars of the day - Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg, Romy Schneider, Peppino de Filippo, Alfio Vita - it would be asking much for a member of the audience to sit through four films in one go, whose aggregate running time is over three hours. But watched separately on consecutive evenings, the outlooks that each film gives about modern Italian relationships in the 1960s is entertaining and insightful. There are also many features of these films that comment on other aspects of modern life, even on the film-making process itself, but this is sadly not the place to review such matters. Instead, I give a brief synopsis of each film.In the first movie (directed by Monicelli) a young couple in the brave new world of postwar northern Italy (high-rise flats and down-payments for a new cooker) cannot let their employer know that they have secretly married for fear of losing their jobs. Fellini's film is a clever take on the story of the temptation of Saint Anthony; in this case a self-appointed moral guardian in Rome is haunted by a lascivious billboard advertising milk. Visconti's contribution is set in high-class Milanese society (where else?), where a young but penniless count has married a young-but-rich industrialist's daughter. She wants to work for a living, but the job she finds is not what she expected. Finally, de Sica's is in his element at the fair in Lugo, where an illiterate female stallholder becomes the raffle-prize for the night, a prize won by the church sacristan.Ponti said that despite Visconti's film being shot on only the one set, his was the most expensive of the four. All four films have their comic elements, whether it's the slapstick of Doctor Antonio during an al fresco lunch or the bumbling patter of Count Ottavio's lawyer. Music for two of the films is provided by Nino Rota. My DVD comes with an 18 certificate. I have no idea why this is so.Whether you're a fan of Italian cinema, have a hankering for the 1960s, have an interest in late-twentieth century social studies, or just enjoy good films, this DVD provides you with four classics in one. Alas, there are no extras.

i gave it four stars for the Fellini episode, one of his funniest and most creative films. You can see EUR, ine of Rome's most peculiar and unexpected, abstract places, that Fellini used as few peole before or after him, showing all hissingularity, inside a story that is a provocation and a mean joke at the same time, against puritanism and italian mentality, althoug Fellini has never just attacked or criticized it, but told it off with a certain affection, regarding it as a unique carnival of excellent and blameful aspects. The other interesting episode is by Visconti, maybe a little boring but made with a fine elegance, which conveys all the stillness and sterility of upper classes life in a decadent and self-referred side of the city. Blu ray is very good

Sometimes it's nice to watch a short film, rather than a whole feature. But these short Italian films are disappointingly weak, especially considering the calibre of the directors. (A far better venture, with short films made by French directors, is 'Paris Vu Par'.)

I showed this film as a cinema projectionist years ago and it brought back memories.The main memory was that the Romy Schneider episode was incredibly boring, pretentious, and still is.The version we showed was dubbed and didn't include the first story on this disc.