The Birds, the Bees and the Italians
- Gastone Moschin: Osvaldo
- Nora Ricci: Gilda
- Virna Lisi: Milena
- Alberto Lionello: Toni Gasparini
- Olga Villi: Ippolita Gasparini
- Gigi Ballista: Giacinto ( doctor )
- Beba Loncar: Giacintos woman ( blonde )
- Franco Fabrizi: Benedetti ( shoe retailer )
- Aldo Puglisi: policeman
But, but, gentlemen ... (AKA: Signore & signori ) is a 1965 Italian comedy film directed by resulting Pietro Germi. She received in 1966 in Cannes Grand Prix for the best film in competition awarded ( jointly with the French Post A man and a woman). When the price of the Italian film critic Nastro d' Argento ( Silver Ribbon ) Olga Villi got the award for best supporting actress, while Gastone Moschin was recognized as Best Supporting Actor. As with many other films of the Commedia all'italiana also wrote the author duo Age & Scarpelli with the script. Goods Germis settled known comedy Divorce Italian Style and Seduction in Italian in southern Italy, then plays them in a Venetian city.
Action
Several couples embark on an evening event. Among them is the doctor Giacinto, whose blonde, young woman is abysmally stupid, and who takes his profession secret very easily. His friend Gasparini familiar to him to have become impotent, which promoted under the present topic of conversation of the evening. It is sometimes omitted, sometimes annoyed, and tried in extramarital affairs. Two women poisons over the whole evening to vehemently.
The film then switches to the daily lives of Osvaldo and Gilda, lead an unhappy, marked by armed marriage. She considers him a failure, and he stuffs all plugs in their ears to their talk time not to hear. He falls in love with the cashier Milena and breaks an excuse to spend a weekend with her on. For common intercourse, it is not because they are disturbed by random Osvaldos aufkreuzenden military comrades. An anonymous letter is Gilda in knowledge of the affair. Her friend Ippolita speaks to her in Osvaldos employer, a Catholic bank before, so his superior talking a cautionary word with him. However, this enhanced solidarity among men is higher and Osvaldo the Council to move his money from the matrimonial account on a new, on his wife has no power. Osvaldo goes to Milena's apartment to spend the night with her. Gilda and Ippolita send them but the police into the house, which they converted into the act. The landlady announces Milena the apartment. Because of the repression and intolerance of society it keeps the young woman no longer leaves and Osvaldo. This rises to a roof and, in the prospect of a continued life with Gilda, jumps. The fire department rescues him with a jumping mat.
A new event keeps the excitement upright in the city. A very attractive country girl shows up in the city and is, make it with a pair of shoes from the owner of the shoe store, Benedetti. He and five other men are enough the willing girls around among themselves, until her father suppresses the activity. Since it is surprisingly only 16 years old, it comes to the prosecution and the men have to fear a prison sentence. Now the ranks of the bourgeoisie close; especially the clergy, the wives and the fathers turn on. They exert pressure on the local paper, so that a coverage of the case does not occur. To avert a scandal of her co-accused man proposes Ippolita, that each of them contributes two million lire. The sum of twelve million is to move the farmers to withdraw his complaint. You find him on his farm. He is content with only five million satisfied ( the rest, leads her charitable activities ), but rushes eager to Ippolita, which the farmer gives himself in the hay. The court acquits the men, while the farmer and his daughter are accused of slander. Of men and women Life resumes its usual course, with a wink and secret affairs. Family and social order is maintained. The small cashier and the peasant girl of course remain as victims on the track.
Reception
In Italy, the production at the box office played a little over 600 million lire. Thus, she was among the most successful local films of the seventh.
The filmdienst remarked in 1966, behind the facade of honor, loyalty and integrity put " lust and intrigue ." Germi had fallen slightly behind his artistic serious earlier works, with a small step on the Schwank to, away from the dedicated, indignant laughter, towards schadenfreude and sardonic mockery.