A Common Sense of Modesty


A Common Sense of Modesty is a 1976 Italian anthology comedy film directed by Alberto Sordi and starring Sordi, Claudia Cardinale and Philippe Noiret.

Plot

The film consists of four segments. The plot centers on the changes in morality that involved Italian society in the 1970s, mainly focusing on the widespread circulation of erotic movies and magazines.

First segment

A mature worker, Giacinto, decides to celebrate his silver wedding anniversary bringing his wife Erminia to the cinema after a long time. Wandering around Rome, they innocently fall into a number of erotic movies. The couple is initially shocked, but soon start to be somehow fascinated by the sexual content.

Second segment

Ottavio Caramessa, a small-town teacher and writer, is hired as a director by a pornographic magazine, jumping suddenly from rags to riches with the help of his extrovert typist, Loredana. He is soon arrested but has no regrets, being certain to fight a noble fight against obscurantism.

Third segment

Tiziano Ballarin, the local magistrate of a small town in Veneto, takes strict measures against adult magazines. While the village is excited by his moralistic – and in some cases hypocritical – campaign, Tiziano's wife, Armida, becomes the target of one of the magazines her husband harshly fights.

Fourth segment

The award-winning German actress Ingrid Streissberg refuses to shoot a sodomy scene in a film adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover, produced by the hot tempered Giuseppe Costanzo. Having invested a great amount of money, he tries everything to convince the star, and even hires a "group of experts" – among which a self-styled progressive priest – to assert the considerable social and cultural relevance of the scene.

Epilogue

The day of the premiere, all the characters express their favorable opinion about the movie.

Cast

; First segment
; Second segment
; Third segment
; Fourth segment
The film was announced by Cineriz in 1975, as an omnibus comedy film starring Sordi, Nino Manfredi, Monica Vitti and Paolo Villaggio, each one directing his segment.

Release

The film was released in Italian cinemas by Cineriz on 10 April 1976.

Reception

Film historian Rémi Fournier Lanzoni described A Common Sense of Modesty as "a courageous film, as it represented a difficult subject and in particular the immaturity of an Italian public poorly prepared to face the amorality of the pornographic film industry and the subsequent sottocultura it provided". Domestically, the film was a box office success, grossing over 1,700 million lire.