If you spend any time in the movie corners of social media, you will inevitably get involved in a conversation about sex and nudity in cinema. There is a growing faction of folks who claim those things have no place in movies. This isn’t coming from the usual conservative, Evangelical spaces, but from young, generally progressive people.
Buy So Young, So Lovely, So Vicious…I suspect it has grown out of the #metoo movement. Thousands of women were sharing their stories about how they had been harassed, assaulted, and worse. Hundreds of actresses talked of being asked to do awful things for producers in order to score a part in a film. And once they got the part, they were often asked to appear nude even if the script didn’t call for it.
Out of this, there came an argument that sex and nudity were unnecessary in movies. That they add nothing to the plot, they exploit the actresses, and with porn readily available, there is no need for the titillation.
I get all of that to an extent. Obviously, the whole casting-couch scene where actresses were asked to perform sexual favors in order to obtain a part is abhorrent. As a fan of 1980s films, I’m certainly more aware than most of how far too often sex and nudity in films are gratuitous. I mean, how many shower scenes do we need?
But at the same time, sex is a hugely important part of what it means to be human. A great many of us spend an inordinate amount of time having sex or at least pursuing it. To say that we cannot show this activity in films seems rather silly. And the idea that films should just imply the act or cut away before things get too explicit feels like censorship. Films are more than plot. Films are a mixture of images, words, and sound. Films can be sensual. Sex in cinema can be beautiful and tender. Or it can be awkward and horrible depending on what the film is doing. We can certainly argue about whether a scene is gratuitous or not, but to broadly state we shouldn’t have sex in cinema is patently ridiculous.
I wonder what the anti-sex-in-movies crowd would think about So Young, So Lovely, So Vicious…. The title and cover art make this film sound like nothing but Eurotrash, like the very definition of gratuitous exploitation cinema. I won’t necessarily argue against that. There is a lot of sex and nudity in this film, not all of it necessary. Gloria Guida spends most of the film either completely naked or wearing a teeny-tiny bikini.
And yet, I can’t completely write it off either. It is doing more than that. It is telling a heartfelt story, with a certain amount of tenderness and a surprisingly progressive take on homosexuality for an Italian film from the 1970s.
When Angela (Gloria Guida) learns that her father wants to marry his new lover, Irene (Dagmar Lassander), she is none too happy. She doesn’t want a pretend mother ordering her about, telling her how to live, and definitely doesn’t want anyone crimping her rather carefree, hedonistic lifestyle.
She hatches a plot with her boyfriend Sandro (Fred Robsahm) to get rid of Irene once and for all. Sandro will seduce her, and when her father finds out, all bets will be off. But despite his best efforts, Irene is uninterested in Saadro.
Angela hires a private detective to dig up some dirt on Irene. He learns that Irene was previously seriously involved with a woman, and when this was discovered, the scandal drove the other woman to suicide. Angela decides she can seduce Irene, and Sandro can take pictures, and together they can blackmail her.
Angela suddenly starts being super nice to Irene. She invites her to the beach and shopping. They have dinner together and spend long nights talking. She also spends a lot of time waltzing around in skimpy clothes, taking showers with the door open, and sleeping in the nude. When none of this works, she gets Sandro to slap her around a bit, tears her clothes, and pretends he tried to rape her. She then falls into the arms of Irene and gets all sorts of sympathy.
That emotional connection brings forth a little physical intimacy the next day on the beach. Sandro is there with his camera, and they are poised for a little blackmail. Except Angela realizes all of this camaraderie she’s had with Irene has actually created something real. Maybe she likes her after all. Maybe she wouldn’t mind a stepmother.
Gloria Guida is quite good as the scheming (and young and lovely and vicious) Angela. She brings an innocence to the role that blends well with her willingness to do anything to get what she wants.
I find the film’s take on homosexuality to be fascinating. Obviously, there is an awareness with these characters that being caught on film entangled in a lesbian affair will create a scandal. Yet Angela doesn’t try to hire someone to get sexy with Irene. She does it herself, which means she’s willing to go all the way with her and also be exposed in those photos. The film doesn’t actually engage with those ideas, so I’m not sure if anyone making it pondered the implications, but it is interesting none the less.
I don’t want to go too far down this road. At its heart, this is an exploitation flick. It is absolutely using Gloria Guida’s beauty (and willingness to be naked on screen for large amounts of time) to sell tickets. The film opens with a scene of her diving into the ocean while wearing a skimpy bikini and then climbing on a rock and taking her top off.
But it does tell a real story with real emotion. And it does this with some finesse. I don’t imagine the moral brigades would accept this as anything more than gratuitous. But I think there is something more to it. Or maybe that’s just me making excuses to not feel shamed by watching something filled with so much naked flesh.
Raro Video, along with Kino Lorber, presents So Young, So Lovely, So Vicious… with a decent-looking 1080p transfer. The only extra is an audio commentary by film historians and hosts of Wild, Wild Podcast Adrian Smith and Rod Barnett.
