La dolce vita

Mario Salieri reminds me a bit of Charles Chaplin in an odd way: Chaplin kept making Silent movies, some terrific ones, long after the art form had been replaced by talkies, and in recent decades Salieri in Italy insisted on shooting real movies, loaded with sweeping stories, character arcs and well-staged drama, but with XXX strongly represented in the running time. This approach, even though all-sex had been adopted by everyone else, with story set-up and dialogue relegated to brief or even token status.

This misleadingly titled feature, which has nothing to do with the Fellini classic in any way, has impressive stagings -never skimping as well as plenty of drama and fine acting by a big-name cast. The sex, with beautiful women and Euro superstar studs (Steve Holmes, Christopher Malcom, Horst Baron and Ramon Nomar) is suitably explicit, but mechanical. In the sex scenes, the lovely actresses play throughout with their eyes closed, giving the impression of disinterested sex workers rather than the required fantasy characters in the throes of passion. Big mistake.

I watched it 20 years after via a French-dubbed print and the show played well in its drama. But Salieri's approach to sex is misguided -completely out of touch with a viewer's needs.