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A handsome Italian businessman is trying to procure
MoHA
A handsome Italian businessman is trying to procure some land and some financing for a project from a wealthy contessa (Irene Papas). He sleeps with the woman…
A handsome Italian businessman is trying to procure some land and some financing for a project from a wealthy contessa (Irene Papas). He sleeps with the woman and thinks he has sealed the deal, but then she insists that he marry her demented teenage daughter (Teresa Anne Savoy). He hatches an elaborate scheme to get out of the marriage: he is going to have the girl kidnapped and raped so he can claim she is not a virgin and have the marriage annulled (did I mention this is a COMEDY?!).
This is pretty disturbing stuff frankly, but not because of the kidnapping and rape scheme (which pretty quickly goes awry). It may not seem to exactly be every middle-aged man's worst nightmare to have to marry a sexy teenager--and the then eighteen-year-old Savoy was definitely a sexy teenager. However, her character literally has the mentality of a two year old throughout most of the movie--she sucks on the protagonist's thumb and cries when he takes it away, she giggles and squirms while he gives her a bath, etc. Of course, she doesn't consistently act infantile--at times she seems seductive or even nymphomaniacal, and he eventually falls for her. If you take this purely as an absurdist comedy, it's pretty harmless I guess. But if it's meant to be erotic, it's pretty damn disturbing unless you have some weird thing for female "adult babies". (I mean if you like your wife or girlfriend to act like an 18-year-old schoolgirl, that's a little kinky. If you're actually dating an 18 year old, well, that's certainly not illegal. But if you have an eighteen-year-old girlfriend and you like her to pretend like she's two, I'd say you have some serious problems. . .)
Savoy went on to star in a couple Tinto Brass films, "Salon Kitty" and "Caligula", where she had just as many nude scenes, but did NOT act like a two year old. Alberto Lattuado, like a lot of French and Italian directors of that era it seems, is a bit of a "Humbert Humbert"--besides this, he directed "Dulce Enganni" where Catherine Spaak plays a schoolgirl involved with an older man and "Stay the Way You Are" where Marcello Masroanni plays a man who has an affair with sexy university student Nastassia Kinski, who may actually be his daughter. He was actually a pretty classy director though, and his movies are usually funnier and a lot less disturbing than they sound on paper. I don't a know about THIS particular one though. . .
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★ 3 / 10
Very Questionable Story!!
I decided to pick a film totally at random from my watchlist and 'Bambina' was the result. Director Alberto Lattuada certainly had an extensive career between…
I decided to pick a film totally at random from my watchlist and 'Bambina' was the result. Director Alberto Lattuada certainly had an extensive career between the 1940's-80's, but I'm not sure he made anything quite as odd as this Italian film from 1974.It's no forgotten classic but is a nice looking film and it's well acted, particularly from Irene Papas. It was also the acting debut of Teresa Ann Savoy (18 years old at the time of filming) who plays the main character of Clotilde who in the film is supposed to be 16, looks 13 and has 'learning difficulties' which leaves her with a mental age of about 3.Considering what I've written above, the content/script of the film is somewhat questionable, disturbing and possibly paedophiliac in nature and the fact that it's labelled as a satire and comedy leaves me somewhat perplexed as to what Lattuada was trying to achieve with the story. I'd rather not think about his reasons.As someone who has watched a plethora of weird cinema over the years, I cannot say I'm glad I saw it, it was an experience, but it's not a film I will be returning to.
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Teresa Savoy is the "Bambina" (in more ways than one, unfortunately)
lazarillo
A handsome Italian businessman is trying to procure some land and some financing for a project from a wealthy contessa (Irene Papas). He sleeps with the woman…
A handsome Italian businessman is trying to procure some land and some financing for a project from a wealthy contessa (Irene Papas). He sleeps with the woman and thinks he has sealed the deal, but then she insists that he marry her demented teenage daughter (Teresa Anne Savoy). He hatches an elaborate scheme to get out of the marriage: he is going to have the girl kidnapped and raped so he can claim she is not a virgin and have the marriage annulled (did I mention this is a COMEDY?!).This is pretty disturbing stuff frankly, but not because of the kidnapping and rape scheme (which pretty quickly goes awry). It may not seem to exactly be every middle-aged man's worst nightmare to have to marry a sexy teenager--and the then eighteen-year-old Savoy was definitely a sexy teenager. However, her character literally has the mentality of a two year old throughout most of the movie--she sucks on the protagonist's thumb and cries when he takes it away, she giggles and squirms while he gives her a bath, etc. Of course, she doesn't consistently act infantile--at times she seems seductive or even nymphomaniacal, and he eventually falls for her. If you take this purely as an absurdist comedy, it's pretty harmless I guess. But if it's meant to be erotic, it's pretty damn disturbing unless you have some weird thing for female "adult babies". (I mean if you like your wife or girlfriend to act like an 18-year-old schoolgirl, that's a little kinky. If you're actually dating an 18 year old, well, that's certainly not illegal. But if you have an eighteen-year-old girlfriend and you like her to pretend like she's two, I'd say you have some serious problems. . .) Savoy went on to star in a couple Tinto Brass films, "Salon Kitty" and "Caligula", where she had just as many nude scenes, but did NOT act like a two year old. Alberto Lattuado, like a lot of French and Italian directors of that era it seems, is a bit of a "Humbert Humbert"--besides this, he directed "Dulce Enganni" where Catherine Spaak plays a schoolgirl involved with an older man and "Stay the Way You Are" where Marcello Masroanni plays a man who has an affair with sexy university student Nastassia Kinski, who may actually be his daughter. He was actually a pretty classy director though, and his movies are usually funnier and a lot less disturbing than they sound on paper. I don't a know about THIS particular one though. . .
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A happy ending to a film about a mentally disabled 16yrs old girl who “falls in love with” a mustached man in his 30’s…Huh?? ..this movie makes Epstein looks like he was working for UNICEF ..Italians are a bunch of weirdos