The Sensual Man (1973) User Reviews (4)

Has a lot going for it, but it isn't really great

[lazarillo · 7 July 2014]

Although they were both horribly dubbed into English and given stupid English language titles, there were really TWO kinds on 1970's Italian sex comedies: there were the strictly low-brow ones featuring Italian goofballs like Lino Banfi and Alvaro, which are basically Three Stooges movies with full-frontal nudity, but then there were the more classy (relatively speaking) ones that are more serious--at times even morose--and more distinctly Italian flavored. This movie appears to be one of the former, but is actually one of the latter.

This movie basically is the story of privileged 20th Italian nobleman "Paolo" who has inherited the hot-blooded nature of his grandfather (Lionel Stander) and uncle (Gaston Moschin), and is given to impulsive acts of violence and compulsive, priapic womanizing. However, he has also inherited the sweet, sensitive nature of his late father and remains always morose and dissatisfied with his dissolute lifestyle, unlike his insensitive grandfather and uncle. He falls in love with a beautiful servant girl (Ornella Muti), but she turns out to be the paid mistress of his grandfather. He briefly meets his match in a Roman society woman (Roseanne Podesta), but she has an affair with his friend. He briefly gets involved with a social gadabout/erstwhile communist (Pilar Velasquez). He is attracted to a pharmacist's daughter (Barbara Bach) and eventually married her innocent but frigid daughter (Neda Americ). But none of this makes him happy and he keeps finding himself in the company of various streetwalkers (played by actresses like Femi Benussi and Orchidea DeSantis).

"Paolo" is played at different ages by three different actors, the most famous of which is Giancarlo Gianinni. Giannini is good, but his character is not particularly likable or sympathetic. Transplanted French actor Moschin and black-listed Hollywood actor Stander are both pretty charismatic (albeit also insufferable bastards), but they are absent from large parts of the movie. The women are all quite good, but a young (barely 18 at the time) Ornella Muti makes the biggest impression, mostly because she gets nice and naked (and the only thing more beautiful than Ornella Muti clothed is Ornella Muti naked). There's actually a lot of female nudity, but with the exception of Muti, none of it involves the "name" actresses (even though Velasquez, Americ, Benussi and De Santis were not exactly ever known for keeping their clothes on).

I did see this in Italian with English subtitles, and it does make it a little classier. But despite having a lot going for it, it isn't quite a good movie.

Romantic and with a little Fellini atmosphere!

[RodrigAndrisan · 8/10 · 31 October 2023]

Many dear and very good actors gathered in this film: Gastone Moschin, Lionel Stander, Riccardo Cucciolla, Vittorio Caprioli, a very young Giancarlo Giannini, a very young and beautiful Ornella Muti and, as usual in the films directed by Marco Vicario, his own wife, the beautiful Rossana Podestà. And there is another beauty, Barbara Bach. Armando Trovajoli's music plays an important role, accompanying almost the same theme, especially all the scenes of the film. The film is not a masterpiece, but it is worth seeing, especially for those who love the actors in the cast. Also, the film is emotional and has a strong message, unfortunately few will understand it, you have to have a lot of life experience and a lot of sensitivity to understand it.

Very smart movie.

[alexferdman-98602 · 10/10 · 3 December 2017]

I had copy of this flick for a very long time but without English so I thought its regular flick with some skin--my mistake. English subs completely changed my opinion. First of all music is excellent and done properly in all right places. Then I understood why producer concentrated on private life of some rich guy instead of concentrating on rich Italian public life--because private life dominate over public no matter what you see on TV. Yes, TV and anything from ruling class is noise and propaganda and that's the end of my story.

Needs subtitles

[JohnSeal · 28 December 2004]

The Sensual Man stars Giancarlo Giannini, dapper as ever, as a sexually obsessed Italian nobleman, and details his erotic exploits over the course of the early to mid 20th century. We first meet him as a randy schoolboy peeking under the skirts of the household help, and the film follows him over the years with brief stopovers during the 1936 Fascist-era conquest of Ethiopia and the postwar comedown. By film's end our desperate hero is still trying to pick up women from the confines of his motor car, as he tearfully tries to break his sexual addiction. The film also features a typically over the top performance by Lionel Stander, here playing--believe it or not--Giannini's grandfather. This is not a film that plays well in English: the dubbing is adequate, but much of the film relies on close understandings of Italian character, society, and history, and these aspects of the story are poorly conveyed by the translation. Unfortunately, the dubbed version is the only version readily available in your local video emporium. Shot in autumnal hues by the great Tonino Delli Colli, The Sensual Man benefits from a romantic if unoriginal score by Armando Trovajoli.