How Funny Can Sex Be?

One of the innumerable portmanteau films produced in Italy since the 1950s; many had been helmed by multiple directors and featured the most popular film stars of the time. Some other examples, however, were made by one director as a vehicle for a particular star's versatility (for instance, Nino Manfredi in Lina Wertmuller's LET'S TALK ABOUT MEN [1965]). This one, in fact, follows the latter trend and featured Giancarlo Giannini and Laura Antonelli in all (but one, in her case) nine segments. However, with the 70s, a lot of vulgarity had seeped into Italian comedy and, with a title like that, the film under review here certainly falls into this category - despite the respectable fare with which both Risi and Giannini were typically associated!

Anyway, quality varies a lot from one episode to the other: perhaps the best were Nos. 2 (concerning an overcrowded poor family, with the stars bursting into spontaneous insults every now and again), 3 (in which Giannini, married to the luscious Antonelli, actually prefers to offer sexual favors to old ladies!), 4 (Giannini is a playboy who's unstoppable in a mobile environment - trains, boats - but actually impotent in bed...so his wife proposes to use the elevator of their hotel, with tragic results!) and 8 (the longest segment and the one in which Antonelli doesn't appear, where a man goes to meet his brother - whom he hasn't seen in years - and falls for a transvestite hooker played by Alberto Lionello, with a surprising denouement). The other episodes aren't too bad, either (one, where Antonelli plays a nun[!], is spoken in gibberish and seems to have been inspired by A CLOCKWORK ORANGE [1971]) - but the repetition and, eventually, the film's considerable length becomes tiresome. Still, Armando Trovajoli's score (including its suggestive title track) is notable.

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.

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.

I am writing this review on 2021 May 3rd.

I can only say Giancarlo Giannini is one of the extraordinary actors of Italian Film Industry of late 70s.

There are other bad review comments about him but for serious actor like him to do this kind comedy, it takes some serious acting skills.

Watch Sensous sicilian for his remarkable performance in the last scene and in Seven Beauties

I should also say that i could not take my eyes away from Laura Antonelli(1941-2015) for whenever she appears in the screen.

Totally i loved this film and enamored in Laura Antonelli. May her soul rest in piece.

Hats off to Dino Risi,Giancarlo Giannini and Laura Antonelli.

This movie is probably one of the worst I've ever seen. It is made up of short sketches that turns around sex and some perversion but they were badly executed. In the first place there were three main actors who are the leads of every sketch but I didn't buy their performance even a little bit. Then the audio and image quality was very low, even for a '70s movie. But the worst problem is that this film should be a comedy but I almost never laugh for a joke inside of it because the comedic writing and timing were really bad. Instead I laugh a lot for the ugliness of this film. Once you see this one, it will easily become a legend, something that you'll never forget, a new standard for horrible movies. At least I didn't find the willingness to make a film to take seriously but it isn't also something merely intended to be trash. In conclusion I suggest this movie to everyone who wants to laugh on how not to make movies.