In which Italian sex symbol Carmen Russo puts the “erotica” in “commedia erotica all’italiana.”
The commedia erotica all’italiana (“sex comedy Italian style”) was a highly popular genre of Italian cinema during the 1970s–1980s. To say they are an acquired taste would be an understatement. I’ve watched several over the years (usually thanks to YouTube) and they’re often quite tedious to sit through. One needn’t be fluent in Italian to watch them, either. One needs only to understand the basic tenet of the subgenre: women are sex objects who turn hapless men into drooling Neanderthals. Wikipedia sums up the style of these films as “a cross between bawdy comedy and humorous erotic film with ample slapstick elements which follows more or less clichéd storylines.”
While commedia erotica all’italian are often interesting from a historical-cultural context, the real draw is always the oft-naked female stars. Edwige Fenech, Gloria Guida, and Barbara Bouchet are just a few who found great success starring in commedia erotica all’italian offerings. Glamour modern Carmen Russo’s acting career was launched in the early 1980s thanks to her many roles in commedia erotica all’italian. Probably the biggest female star of the genre’s latter years, Russo threw herself—and that jaw-dropping body of hers—into roles as sex-starved housewives and sultry mistresses, with extreme prejudice. She was a sexual assassin of the highest order. Women wanted to be her and men wanted to boink her brains out. Russo was a lethal sex bomb who detonated the screen every time she sauntered into frame, usually while only wearing skimpy lingerie or just completely nekkid.
Her immense, um, talents were on full display in Mia moglie torna a scuola, or My Wife Goes Back to School (1981). Russo stars as Valentina, the sexy trophy wife of a wealthy grocer who enrolls in a private boarding school to finish high school, which she dropped out of as a teenager. Hilarity ensues, as Valentina uses her, shall we say, natural assets to seduce her way into good grades, all while driving her dopey husband into fits of jealousy. That’s about all you need to know while watching My Wife. Otherwise, just kick back and enjoy Russo’s scorching hot sex appeal on full, glorious display throughout.
Do I recommend this movie, or others of the genre? Well, that depends. How does this make you feel?
If you answered with “Rock hard,” then this is the movie for you. Sure, the film is idiotic and full of clownish performances by most of the cast, but that’s why fast forward exists. And Carmen Russo’s body is why pause exists. While you’re on YouTube, browse the rest of Carmen “The Body” Russo’s filmography for more of the same.
Commedia erotica all’italian were never easy to find here in the States, but many are now on YouTube, including My Wife Goes Back to School.
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