Boccaccio '70

Probably the best remembered of that exasperating sub-genre, the portmanteau film, largely because the directors concerned (the undisputed heavyweights of their time) let rip in their most vulgar styles in an attempt to recapture the spirit of Boccaccio. The filmettes also reveal a startling fear of women in general. Fellini's episode concerns an outsize Ekberg who steps out of a billboard poster to torment an ineffectual puritan; while Visconti delivered a vicious tale of a beautiful young wife (a stunning performance by Schneider) who takes revenge on her husband by making him pay for her body. De Sica and Monicelli went for broader, more traditional comedic effect - less pretentious, but perhaps inevitably in this company, less memorable.