Confessions of a Frustrated Housewife (1976)

Aging wife desperately wants to sexually satisfy her husband, but he's losing interest and cheats. She seeks advice even from prostitutes but nothing helps. Tired from trying, she falls for her husband's son who reciprocates.

Director:

Andrea Bianchi

Writers:

Andrea Bianchi (screenplay), Andrea Bianchi (story)

Stars:

Carroll Baker, Adolfo Celi, Cesare Barro

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Carroll Baker	...	Laura
Adolfo Celi	...	Antonio
Cesare Barro	...	Claudio
Luigi Pistilli	...	Carlo
Gabriella Giorgelli	...	Prostitute
Dada Gallotti	...	Patrizia's Friend
Caterina Barbero	...	Gabriella
Carla Spessato	...	Magda
Femi Benussi	...	Patrizia
Jenny Tamburi	...	Diana

Storyline

Antonio, a rich old Italian industrialist is married in a second time to the fascinating middle-aged Laura. After 7 years of marriage, things work wearily. There is even some problem in the bedroom, he can no longer satisfy her sexually but he embarks on sparkling purely sexual relationships with very young girls. At the same time, he makes his son Claudio, who is a university student abroad, return home, and help him with his business at his small factory. He also asks him act as a companion for his increasingly lonely and disconsolate wife, while he is having fun with presumed business trips with Danish students. Son and stepmother, however, become more and more close-knit, until the crime happens, or rather, more than one. She then becomes aware of herself and leaves the house going to live with an ultra-feminist friend Diana, while Claudio returns to his studies. Her husband searches for her, begs her to come back to him. The woman, who finally feels free, refuses. Antonio, being ...

---

Plot Keywords:

sex with stepmother | dysfunctional marriage | voyeur | bare breasts | husband murders wife | 

---

Taglines:

When dad's away his wife will play!

---

Genres:

Drama

---

Certificate:

Not Rated

Did You Know?

Trivia

Carroll Baker's voice was dubbed by another actress in the English language version.

---

Quotes

Antonio: Pretty name, Magda. You plan on living here for good?
Magda: Yes.
Antonio: Good, good. You really from Budapest?
Magda: No. You like me anyway?
Antonio: [laughs]
Magda: I like it here. Especially the men. They're nice.

User Reviews

dull incest melodrama with side-benefits

It seems that a whole sub-genre existed in 70's Italian cinema tentatively tackling incest and other sexual aberrations in straightforward melodramatic form (see also "The Dark Side of Love", etc.) This may be due to the influence of "Last Tango", which is referred to directly by one of the characters here. Films taking advantage of Carroll Baker's exploitable name and aging body constitute a parallel Italian sub-genre of the time, and this film marks their merger. As usual, Baker plays a cheating wife (with her own stepson, nonetheless!), though her indiscretion is quite understandable considering her faithless and feckless businessman husband.

Director Bianchi made an entertaining giallo ("Strip Nude For Your Killer") and a minor cult horror item ("Night Hair Child"), but apart from a rather unexpected ending and his usual political incorrectness, he doesn't add much panache to the matter-of-fact tale.

There are a couple of diversions, thank goodness. Femi Benussi, who spent most of the aforementioned giallo in a too-tight bikini and then stark naked, sports a snazzy, straight-haired black wig that makes her more fetching than usual (though she seems to be wearing that same unflattering bikini again). Best of all is another caddish performance by Luigi Pistilli, playing a similar misanthrope to the one he incisively portrayed in another fine giallo, "Gently Before She Dies". He plays a womanizing doctor who doesn't take his Hippocratic oath at face value, and loves to invent sexy games to loosen up his rather staid bourgeois party guests. Too bad the whole picture wasn't about him.

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

4 August 1976 (Italy)

Also Known As:

Laura

Filming Locations:

Milan-Malpensa Airport, Ferno, Varese, Lombardia, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Capitol International, Koala Cinematografica

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technospes)