Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

IOBdennis I couldn't believe how painfully boring and trite this movie is when I watched it in retrospect recently. Schneider seems to be sleep-walking through her segment. Ekberg is embarrassing with her dubbed laugh track that is incessant and stupid. Was this film made before or after "Attack of the 50-foot Woman"? Loren is the closest to being believable, but there are moments when she seems to be hamming it up as an inexperienced actor.The plots of the 4 segments meander and go nowhere. Act I seems like a first attempt by a student studying film. Act II is a sophomoric joke--stereotypically Italian. Women are their (titter! titter!) mammaries, so "Drink more milk" (giggle giggle). And Fellini (a master elsewhere) is literally trotting out what come across as merely cinematic clichés for the audience only this time in color. There's a bus-load of "cool, hip, black" American jazz-savvy Americans; a quick-step marching brass band wearing black feathered hats who mid-march do a wild and crazy 360 turn as they march, right out of a previous Fellini flick. What's their point here? Oh, boy, I felt like I was really sopping up Italian culture then. Act III about the young couple suffering from modern ennui is lifeless drawing room "comedy". It drags on and on, and Schneider seems to be sleep-walking through it. Act IV, perhaps the most intelligent and entertaining of the segments, repeats itself maddeningly, and some of the lottery-exchanging tricks by the locals just don't seem to make much sense.Supposedly Boccaccio was noted for his naturalistic dialog when he wrote. This film is mis-titled. It shares nothing in common with Boccaccio or "The Decameron". One thing that struck me while I was watching this lesson in boredom was how idiotic the dialog was. Someone says something like "I wish you would close the door," and the response is "But Mario needs new shoes, and my heart is broken." WHA? Non sequiturs abound. Oh, I felt so artsy. The dialog in the film comes across as a parody of Italian art films from the '60s and '70s. Only thing, THIS is the real thing. Yuck! Would I have felt that way about this film back then? Hard to say. I don't remember even having seen it then, and perhaps those visions of Italian culture that now seem stereotypical or trite may have been boldly decameron-esque back then.

wobelix Words are not enough for this wonderful quadruple satire. Yes, in the beginning there were FOUR, but the Mario Monicelli story got cut to economize on time. It is the least funny but very compelling tale of two newlyweds finding no space or time to be alone together. A beautiful story.On the DVD distributed by the Dutch label Homescreen all 4 stories are included. Very odd though, it is a widescreen version, but from the top & bottom there are layers missing. So all the players standing up, get there heads chopped of. Astonishing, and very irritating. The sound every now and then echos, which is bad too. And the only subtitles available are in Dutch...But to see these wonderful tales again, of Fellini, Visconti, De Sica & Monicelli, and to see Romy Schneider, Sophia Loren & Anita Ekberg play so majestically, might be well worth it to forget about the technical problems of this DVD. And let's simply hope CRITERION can obtain the rights shortly, for they will surely do this fourfold little miracle justice...

rogierr These three directors definitely distinguish themselves here from each other without being cocky. Well, Fellini and Ekberg may be VERY audacious, but that just adds positively to his work in my opinion. In his segment 'The temptations of Dr. Antonio' is enough material to fill an entire feature. It brings big fun and surrealism in a story about a very BIG billboard with a picture of Anita Ekberg on it holding a glass of milk. A moralistic guy (censor?) who lives right in front of the billboard (and BTW gets a very funny introduction in the film) can't accept the supposedly scandalous picture and takes action. After seeing it, I couldn't get this tune out of my head: 'Bevete piu latte' (you must drink milk) which is a commercial tune for the billboard. It is all very carnavalesque, versatile and entertaining. It's a pity Giuseppe Rotunno (Amarcord, Città delle donne, il Gattopardo, Carnal Knowledge) didn't dignify this segment with his cinematography (as he DID with Visconti's poetic segment which has a much more distinct atmosphere and has less special effects).The common factor between the three segments is a (light) moral discussion about what sexual borders people can have and what must occur to make them actually think about it. Where exactly lies the border of your taboos? The film is also watchable as plain entertainment, for the three starring ladies are captivating and intense here (though in general I don't like Ekberg that much). Romy Scheider played a girl in the silly 'Sissy' (1955-57), but is already glorious with her subtle impression in this segment of a mature lady who gets double-crossed by her fiancee and takes revenge.I didn't see the segment 'Renzo e Luciana' unfortunately, because it was unavailable :(, but I guess I liked Fellini's part best and De Sica's least (as most of his work): De Sica had some better short films in 'Ieri, oggi, domani' (1963, all starring Sophia Loren). Or it could be that I liked the first two segments best, because there was Nino Rota's (Godfather, Amarcord) score under them. De Sica's segment is just not interesting in any way. Nevertheless this is a triptych of the highest order: underrated.9/10

Len Helfgott I remember seeing this as a teenager when it was in the movies. An entertaining trio with a sexual theme but no nudity in the 60's. The best was 'The Censor' with a hyper-voluptuous Anita Ekberg as a 100 foot long billboard ad (for milk) that comes to life to torment the local censor -- absolutely hilarious. Then the magnificent Sophia Loren in "The Lottery" where the winner of the drawing wins her for the night. Last is with the late Romy Schneider in a bittersweet tale about a philandering husband who uses their wealth on prostitutes. At least that's what I remember after well over 30 years. If anyone knows where I can rent this again, please let me know.