How Funny Can Sex Be?

Collections of shorts, all played by the same main actors, were quite popular up to the 80ies. The actors had the chance to portray multiple characters and show their versatility, the script could quickly tackle various topics without lingering or the need of elaborate explanations. "Sesso matto" offers eight comedy shorts, all focusing on sexual fantasies, perversions, weird behavior and stuff like that. While none of its contents will raise eyebrows by today's standards, back in the early Seventies this was probably deemed a daring movie. Male lead is Giancarlo Giannini, who is generally running around in ridiculous hairdos, outfits and tends to overact all the time. On his opposite we have the irresistible Laura Antonelli who suffers from the varying quality of her roles, but overall gives a far better performance than Giannini.

As you can imagine, the quality of the shorts ranges from okay to terrible. So what's to see? No Spoilers, there isn't much to spoil anyway.

(Madam, it's eight o'clock): The relationship between a rich lady and her servant, who has continuing problems to wake her up at the time she ordered him to. It's obvious why this is the first episode. Laura is looking absolutely gorgeous and there are some small topless scenes. The Italian-French dialogs are quite funny (noblesse oblige!), but apart from that it's rather dumb. 5/10

(Two hearts and a hut): A poor couple at the bottom of society suspects each other of adultery and then try to have sex next to their thirteen children in their crowded hut. I immediately forgot about this one as it was rather disgusting (volitionally, I admit). Neither funny nor interesting at all. 1/10

(It's never too late): Giannini plays a weirdo who is attracted to grannies. He stalks one and when he finally succeeds in his advances, he takes it to the next level. Another rather disgusting topic. While played for laughs, the stalking itself is actually shown quite seriously and that's not really a good thing. Laura is completely wasted in this one. Again, not funny at all. 2/10

(Honeymoon): A freshly married couple on its honeymoon at Venice. Super-Macho Giannini turns out to be failure in bed, but Laura finds a way to turn him on… This could be considered a centerpiece episode, as it is made far more elaborately than the rest, with nice location shots at Venice, and an actually working vehicle for the two lead actors. Well, the solution is ridiculous of course, but this is still an enjoyable episode. 6/10

(Come back my little one): Giannini as a weirdo who picks up a hooker and takes her to his home. Turns out he chose her because she resembles his wife who has left him and he wants her for role playing. This one is not bad at all and quite unusual with its sad mood and absence of trashy dialog. Laura as a hooker is a strange, but fascinating sight, reminded me somewhat of her look in "Bali" (1970). That's a good thing, in case you wonder. 7/10

(Italian worker abroad): A guy comes to a hospital/sperm bank and while he's "delivering", he fantasizes about the nun he met moments before. A totally strange and unique episode, judging from the gibberish it's supposed to take place in Scandinavia (although a German porn magazine is shown for whatever reason). Anyway, you can't make out any of the dialogs, and it's done kinda funny. Laura's admirers are in for a treat here with an extended sequence of her dancing and posing in a semitransparent cowl. 7/10

(The Revenge): Laura's husband got killed by the mob, and at the funeral, Don Corleone shows up to pay his respects. As he advances on her, she sees the chance to take revenge for her husband's death – in bed. With Giannini only briefly shown (dead), this one is carried completely by Laura Antonelli, who is very convincing as the grieving widow full of anger. But then, the stand-out aspect of this very short episode is not the acting, but the sizzling erotic dance she performs towards the end. 6/10

(A difficult love): The longest and probably dumbest of all episodes. The complete absence of Laura makes it even harder to endure. Giannini plays once more a fool who falls for a transvestite hooker, without realizing it's not a woman. This is Incredibly unbelievable to begin with, but when he finally sees his mistake, it all gets even weirder… I guess there weren't too many movies by 1973 trying to show transvestite prostitutes halfway realistically at their job, so it may have had a different impact back then, but this episode has aged terribly and is completely ridiculous. 0/10

(The Guest): Probably to make up for the previous episode, this one is a pure Laura show. Her husband invites a geeky professor into their luxurious villa, and Laura starts to seduce him. The husband doesn't seem to notice – or does he? Well, how can you go wrong with the young, incomparably beautiful Laura Antonelli in horny mode? Even Giannini as the professor with his nerdy and ridiculous way of speaking is quite funny in this episode. 7/10

So overall, as so often with Italian comedies, it is a matter of taste what one will think of the single episodes. But there can be no doubt the quality is fluctuating wildly. For admirers of Laura Antonelli, "Sesso matto" is a must-see, at least a couple of the episodes. Surprisingly, for a movie of that name and of that topic, there is barely any nudity on offer. But clothed or not, Laura is always a delight to behold. If you are looking for a really good "sexy commedia all'Italiana", you better pass on "Sesso matto".

HOW FUNNY CAN SEX BE? is an Italian film originally called SESSOMATTO ("Crazy Sex") and features Giancarlo Giannini, well-known from his films with Lina Wertmuller, and co-star Laura Antonelli. Originally a movie of eleven segments, it has been cut down to eight. In each brief episode we watch Giannini in some kind of sexual escapade, predicament, or buffoonery, from a bout with an overweight Milanese drag queen to an erotic dream about a nun (Antonelli) at a hospital where he has volunteered as an artificial insemination donor. Although there is an occasional moment or two of genuine wit and humor, I found the bulk of this movie stupid, sophomoric, and tasteless. And the English dubbing is so horrendously atrocious, it seems that we are listening to the soundtrack from another movie. So how funny can sex be? Pretty funny, I guess, but you'll never learn from this turkey of a movie. Veteran director Dino Risi (of IL SORPASSO fame) directed. He has done much better.

A play on words (check-mate, sex-mad, get it?), the title Sessomatto is quite accurate since most of the sketches in the movie are about sex gone berserk. I'm writing this in 2002, some 28 years after seeing the movie, so memory may fail me, but, even though this was supposed to be a vehicle for Giancarlo Giannini, I remember it mostly for the radiant beauty of Laura Antonelli. Some of the sketches definitely had some socially redeeming value and are harbingers of Dino Risi's future masterpieces (Profumo di donna, Primo Amore and, particularly, I Nuovi Mostri).

Sessomatto ("Sex Madness," but released in English as "How Funny Can Sex Be?") is comprised of a series of eight comic sketches, each on average 10-15 minutes long, all having to do with sex, and all featuring two of the giants of Italian cinema in the 1970s, Giancarlo Giannini and Laura Antonelli. The sex in the movie is pretty tame by 21st century standards, and much of its humor comes from things that would have been shocking in the 1970s but aren't any more, a lot of that humor having been diluted over time. However, what interested me most was the sharp contrast between the acting styles of the two talented leads. Giannini is consistently cartoonishly exaggerated, following in the tradition of many great comedians, from Chaplin to the Marx Brothers to Jerry Lewis to Lucille Ball, Whoopi Goldberg, Jim Carrey, and Jackie Chan. Antonelli, on the other hand, takes a completely opposite tack bu trying to ealistically portray how someone might actually act if caught in a ridiculous situation. This follows the style of equally wonderful comic actors like Carole Lombard, Jimmy Stewart, Bill Murray, Julia Roberts, and Will Smith. Antonelli is also one of the finest examples of how to act with just one's eyes. I rated this based on how most audiences will see it, which is as mildly amusing and mildly sexy. But for those with a special interest in comedy acting, I would rate it much higher: maybe even a 10.

Normally the epithet "sexy comedy" is a cinematic death knell, but the cooperation of the fantastic Laura Antonelli, Giancarlo Giannini and director Dino Risi turned this into a timeless classic. And yes, it's funny and sexy. In nine segments and probably inspired, in a good way, by Woody Allen's "What You Always Wanted To Know About Sex" which was released a year earlier.