This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

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.

A quartet mini-features from the 4 most prestigious Italian directors must be a rare treat for aficionados, but since shorts sometimes has been designed to experiment maestro's more daring or outlandish innovation, so a 1+1<2 formula is well acceptable for the viewers at least. Act 1, Monicelli's amiable modern tale of a pair of young newlyweds working in the same factory while conceiving their nuptial facts since it breaches the unfeeling regulation. Monicelli's devotion and affection to the general mass is ubiquitous, the camera follows intimately to record the lovebirds' daily work, diversion and quagmire, and the bittersweet ending is unerringly sanguine which should be the bloodline runs inside the Italian lineage. Act 2, Fellini's ever-first colour endeavour, surrealistic, sumptuous and luscious fantasy of a moral watchdog's eventual relinquishment towards a sexy bomb (an enormous 50 feet-tall Anita Ekberg), a female-exploitation gag which is constantly overplayed (not inclusively) in Fellini's canon. But visually, Fellini's manoeuvre of projecting different proportioned characters (creates two identical settings with different sizes) is quite nimble without exposing any shoddy clues (except the forged beasts, which is a buzzkill). Act3, Visconti's pleonastic noble Count whose brothel scandal evokes a major crisis with his wealthy but vindictive wife, a higher-tier pastiche ends up with a sloppy reference of a disparaging stinking rich's gauche prostitute fetish. At any rate Romy Schneider is the best thing in it, pairs with a well-suited Tomas Milian, presents a paragon of bourgeois vulnerability and emptiness. Act 4, another "prostitute" farce in a rural background, De Sica seduces the world with Sophia Loren's vulgar and crude beauty, a sultry whore will spend one night with the man who guess right of the lottery number, but it turns out to be a mental masturbation joke, quite tedious and a bit offensive. Apparently this is another patchy miscellany doesn't live up to the test of the time, Monicelli's neo-realistic part (which suspiciously is taken out completely in the original US release) is the standout and quite a pity it didn't make up to a feature-length piece of work which producer Carlo Ponti had promised then.

My main attraction to Boccaccio 70 was that one of the four segments was directed by Federico Fellini(the others being Mario Monicelli, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica), whose work I have always admired. Getting the remastered version, I was expecting good, even great things, though I was prepared for some elements not being as good as others. And I found Boccaccio 70 to be interesting indeed. Sure it is uneven, but I could clearly see that a lot of work went into all the segments.Monicelli's Renzo E Luciana was intriguing. The love story is simple and very cute, and it is all delicately funny and charming with a touch of endearing sweetness. The two leads acquit themselves very well, Marisa Solinas is simply gorgeous, while it is beautifully filmed also. The story itself is rather slight though, with a couple of scenes that feel a little too long and not as tight in pace. It doesn't feel really all that rounded off either. However it is charming and cute and I'd definitely see it again.Fellini's Le Tentazioni del Dottor Antonio is my personal favourite of the four segments. It has Fellini's style all over it, it does feel personal and nostalgic, and he directs superbly. The pace is slowly deliberate but never feels dull. The settings and photography are stunning. I also loved it for how funny and surreal it was, the Milk song is very catchy stuff indeed, the various characters have certain quirks and charms that do make them likable in alternative to detached and Anita Ekberg is a sheer delight by her body alone. The music is bright and cheerful also.Visconti's Il Lavoro is perhaps my least favourite. That is not to say it isn't good, it definitely is, however I did find the pace sluggish and some of the dialogue dull and too talky. However, it is very touching on the whole and emotionally is the most complex of the four segments. It looks beautiful too, with skillful photography(love the close-up(s) of Schneider's eyes) and striking settings. The music is sensitively composed and orchestrated and doesn't feel overbearing in any way. What really elevates Il Lavoro though is the performance of Romy Schneider, sexy and very expressive, I identified with her completely, even if it was not quite the same with the rest of the cast.De Sica's Il Riffa is second best to Fellini's segment. As with the other three segments, it is beautifully shot and scored, De Sica directs with a firm yet involved hand, and of the four it is the most exciting. It is most memorable though for the performance of Sophia Loren. This is not just for Loren's sexiness, and she is very alluring here, but the fact that she plays a very strong-willed woman while managing to evoke some poignancy. I was also genuinely moved by the final encounter between her and the sacristan, who is just as endearingly performed.Overall, visually stunning with great lead performances(especially Loren), four great Italian directors doing solid to outstanding jobs on each segment and with generally interesting characters and stories. It is uneven, with Visconti's having many things to admire but somewhat wanting and Fellini's outstanding and possibly some of his best work, but none of them are unwatchable or anything. Well worth a watch. 7/10 Bethany Cox

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