Non commettere atti impuri

A young artist named Pino (Dado Crostarosa) develops a crush on girl next door Maria Teresa, who just happens to be played by Appolonia from `The Godfather' (Simonetta Stefanelli). The problem is, she is very religious and he is not. At his job decorating dishes for tourists he even refuses to paint religious images. The romance over the balcony fence starts to get serious when the boy offers to tutor her in Latin. Her nosy mother and grandmother (who lick stamps for a living) make for a comical nuisance. Meanwhile his revolutionary father Damiano (Luciano Salce) is having an affair with Nadin (Barbara Bouchet), a French student about the age of his son. When Pino takes his fathers flirtatious girlfriend out for a drive medallion man Damiano immediately becomes jealous.

Although nothing much happiness in the first hour, the musical score by Riz Ortolani tries to make you believe you're watching the funniest picture ever. It strives to emphasize even the tiniest joke by using church organs and pop tunes. Pino decides to visit a monastery to be baptized, but only learns his Hail Mary's. Unfortunately Maria Teresa's uncle shows up and decides he is better qualified to tutor her. Suddenly things start to move completely out of control when Damiano introduces his son to a radical group of pot smoking demonstrators. Soon Pino finds himself carrying a home made bomb for them but decides to follow Maria and her uncle instead.

During the last twenty minutes the plot loses all credibility, as if the filmmakers had no idea how to end the film. Out goes the tender love story with comments on religion to make way for teenage frustrations and unbelievable plot twists. There are some disturbing revelations about Maria Teresa's family, the bomb sub plot is just a McGuffin and an unlikely happy end arrives totally out of the blue. Then before you can ask yourself what happened, the credits start rolling.

4 out of 10