Avere vent'anni (1978)

Director:

Fernando Di Leo

Writers:

Fernando Di Leo (screenplay)
Fernando Di Leo (story)

Release Date:

14 July 1978 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Lia and Tina are two beautiful girls who meet and realize that they have a lot in common. They are both young...

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Prostitution | Police | Gang | Interrogation

Cast

Gloria Guida	...	Lia
Lilli Carati	...	Tina
Ray Lovelock	...	Rico
Vincenzo Crocitti	...	Riccetto
Giorgio Bracardi	...	Commissario Maresciallo Zambo
Leopoldo Mastelloni	...	Arguinas
Roberto Reale	...	Head of rapists
Serena Bennato	...	Lesbian car driver
Daniele Vargas	...	Prof. Affatati
Vittorio Caprioli	...	Nazariota
Licinia Lentini	...	Lesbian woman
Daniela Doria	...	Patrizia
Raul Lovecchio	...	Vice-commissioner (as Raoul Lo Vecchio)
Fernando Cerulli	...	Retired civil servant
Camillo Chiara

Also Known As:

Being Twenty (Europe: English title) (video box title)
To Be Twenty

Runtime:

94 min | Australia:90 min | 81 min (recut version)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Italy:VM18 | Italy:VM14 (re-rating) (2005) | Iceland:16 | Australia:R

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

International Daunia Film

Soundtrack:

Disco is here to stay

Find the Italian version

This movie is available in two versions. The English-language version is a badly-dubbed, waste-of-time sex comedy (not unlike a lot of the films co-lead Gloria Guida was starring in at the time). The Italian version is similarly light-hearted for much of its running time, but it does make some serious commentary on police corruption, the confused politics and ultimate hollowness of the 70's era counterculture, and the reactionary nature of male-dominated rural Italy. The ending is unforgettably brutal, inspired no doubt by films like "Last House on the Left" or "Late Night Trains". Like those films it was quite controversial, and really for the same ironic reason--because you really come to like the two lead characters and care what happens to them. This is no mean feat as Gloria Guida had no real acting talent beyond looking (really) good naked and the other lead, porno-starlet-to-be Lili Carati, was, if anything, even less talented.

The plot of the movie is rather loose and picaresque. It follows these two "beautiful and p***ed-off" girls as they hitchhike, shoplift, crash at a commune, dabble in prostitution, sell encyclopedias to lecherous university professors, get rousted by the police, and finally meet a tragic end at a roadhouse. Along the way the way they more than fulfill the sexploitation skin quotient and frequently throw themselves at various men who hilariously rebuff them (although despite the famed sexual aggressiveness of Italian men, it is not impossible to believe that they might react this way if the tables were suddenly turned on them). It is this free-spirited sexual aggressiveness that proves to be downfall of the two girls, but this movie is ultimately more touching and tragic than cautionary and moralistic--traditional, male-dominated Italian society certainly doesn't come off to well here.

The two versions have different discoesque musical arrangements that the characters do sexy, impromptu dances to--the Italian one is kind of catchy but the English-language is about as enjoyable as a barium enema. I would't bother with the English-language version, but the Italian version is definitely a worthwhile little movie.