Till Marriage Do Us Part

Convent-reared Sicilian Laura Antonelli is wed to equally Sicilian Alberto Lionello. Before they can consummate the marriage, they discover they are actually sister and brother. Appalled, but unwilling to admit the shame, they agree to live together, but never touch each other. However, Miss Antonelli, despite her prudish upbringing, feels the constant call of the flesh.

Luigi Comencini's sex comedy is set in 1908 through 1920, so there are references to Gabriele D'Annunzio's erotic work. Yet in the words of the character played by Michele Placido, the chauffeur who seduces Miss Antonelli, everyone is confused by words; the deed is simple and natural. In the midst of all the sniggering and high-flown talk set around the lack of anything to talk about, there are a couple of good comic sequences, and Lionello is quite funny, but mostly it's all about the stupidity.

Even if there is no sex. Isn't it? Well, that's pretty much what happens in the film. Until Eugenia, the character played by the unique beauty that was Laura Antonelli, meets Silvano, the character played by Michele Placido. What a beauty of a woman this Laura Antonelli is, I consider her the most beautiful woman in the world, more beautiful than all the beautiful actresses, like other Italians I have been in love with more or less, Virna Lisi, Monica Vitti, Sylva Koscina, Silvana Mangano, Anonella Lualdi, Rossana Podestà, Sophia Loren, Monica Bellucci, Claudia Cardinale, Gina Lollobrigida, Ornella Muti, Stefania Sandrelli. The film is worth seeing just for her. A little for Michele Placido and Jean Rochefort too. Alberto Lionello's acting is too exaggerated. The talented director Luigi Comencini also delighted me with other films such as: "The Scopone Game Original title: Lo scopone scientifico (1972) and "Misunderstood" Original title: Incompreso (Vita col figlio) (1966). The 10 stars are less for the film than for Laura Antonaz, known as Antonelli.

Luigi Comencini made a couple of mildly entertaining films: La boheme with Barbara Hendricks and L'ingorgo. Mostly the tone is bitter-sweet, the colour scheme soft, somewhat washed out and the dramatic level is low. So it is here, with Laura Antonelli (her body could revive a dead man, I sometimes think) and Alberto Lionello playing this silly charade of brother and sister. Michele Placido has some fun playing the chauffeur--and how long does it take him to get her out of her clothes so they can have sex? The plot twists and turns would take too long to recount, and I don't want to use spoilers anyway. The scenes with Karin Schubert and the ladies who obsess over D'Annunzio are really tiresome and should have been deleted.

This film is a genuinely funny farce of conservative Italian morality. The cycle of absurd events in the film is pretty ingenious and I can see this type of writing as inspirational to writers like Woody Allen and Roberto Begnini. Above all, Luigi Comencici's direction is superb. Even if you don't laugh out loud, you should be able to appreciate his masterful comedic directing style. The lead actress Laura Antonelli is a grade-A fox, so watch it for that at least.

I've seen this movie 4 or 5 times. It is great and very funny! I like all actors very much especially Laura Antonelli and Jean Rochefort. This movie is kind of the parody. Sometimes it reminds me the style of Jane Austen parodies. This is about the "women decorum" or how a woman has to behave with a man in the beginning of XX century.