House of Smiles

Ferreri's film concerns old age (the old provocateur is in his sixties himself), and centres around the relationship between two 'inmates' of a home for the elderly: lively, eccentric Adelina (Thulin) and dapper charmer Andrea (Ruspoli). All Ferreri's films have elements of surreal black farce, and here the farce resides in the outrageous institutional repressiveness of the home and its staff. Ferreri turns everything on its head. Transgressors (and those unable any longer to perform basic functions for themselves) are threatened with dispatch to 'Africa', an outbuilding staffed by immigrant Maghrebi workers. It is there that the celebrant couple go for privacy and sex (in the Watermelon caravan belonging to their African friends). A film of sharp insight, filled with humanity and mischievous subversiveness.