The Senator Likes Women
(All’onorevole Piacciono Le Donne)
Picture: C-
Sound: C Extras: C- Film: C
Italian Cinema has a style all its own and specifically so
in comedy. The way that genre can
become sexually, religiously and politically charged like no other country’s
output. A few classics have resulted,
especially from Federico Fellini, but many of the comedies have been of more
readerly, standard narratives. One such
example is The Senator Likes Women (All’onorevole Piacciono Le Donne) from
1972. The somewhat surreal comedy is
about the title character (Lando Buzzanca) is just totally obsessed with women,
with the particular habit of wanting to grab their behinds.
Some very corrupt politicians and especially cardinals and
priests, want to use him to further an extremist movement that is
anti-intellectual, reactionary, bigoted, and Right Wing bordering on
Fascism. It is a great idea, but the
comedy tends to overtake the more potent commentary and really have some edge
to it. Instead, we get a film that is
watchable and interesting at times, but even those who live din Italy at the
time would be hard-pressed to convince this critics that this was that much
funnier in its time. I do like some of
the frankness of the sexuality and religious corruption, but I kept waiting for
the film to kick in and it did not.
Lucio Fulci himself even wrote the story and screenplay, but it is not
up to his best work. Too bad Vincenzo
Tomassi did not have his directing knack.
The letterboxed 1.85 X 1 image features an EastmanColor
print that is fading fast, unfortunately, which was the original color format
of release. Sergio D’Offizi’s
cinematography, what we can see of it, is not bad. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono fares barely better, with background
hiss and obvious dubbing and looping, standard practice in Italy. English subtitles are available. The only extras are stills and the original
trailer. It should also be noted that
Lionel Stander, later Max from the TV classic Hart To Hart, is the
corrupt church head. Stander was a
victim of the “Communist Witch Hunt” in Hollywood and one of its only
survivors, so his work here is ironic indeed.
- Nicholas Sheffo
