Malizia

Another film proving that stereotypes can be completely ridiculous. We get to see: Italy, the 70s, and a comedy. And subconsciously, we expect Villaggio, Sordi, or Spencer/Hill. Furthermore, we get to read in advance that the film is "erotic," and immediately remember that in Italy, soft-porn films gained popularity in the 70s and 80s, capitalizing on the loosening of morals after the sexual revolution, fueling low instincts and audience expectations, thereby hiding their own lack of substance. Then we watch Malicious and we do get a clever and, in some places, disturbing film, still a comedy, but completely different from what the stereotypes might suggest. The story of a chambermaid is also the story of a woman (as a gender), who is exploited by her bourgeois masters in two ways. As a sexual object, she serves the pubescent son to establish his "adult" control over the female body and will. As an attractive, submissive, and clean servant, she is suitable for the down-to-earth comfortable and lustful father. The double affirmation of a woman as an object of male desire and power. But even the chambermaid is not without guilt - when she acts freely in the film (after all, she can quit, start screaming, etc.), it is revealed that she is heading towards her own fate (marrying an old man for money and status?). The camera work by V. Storaro is also exceptional for an "Italian comedy from the 70s." (2014.07.12)