Who else could play the title character of La Bella Antonia but La Bella Edwige? As a virtues (at first ) medieval maiden (not for long) bound to a marriage of inconvenience. she has to have a picture painted to sweeten the deal. Enter Giovanni Piccolomini (Riccardo Garrone), wearing a scene stealing red cap indicating his artistic nature. Giovanni's brush is irresistible to every woman he meets, including (within the first ten minutes of the film), a serving wench at the local tavern and both of Antonia's ladies in waiting. Being one of those period sex romps from Fenech' early years, she still had to share on-screen nudity with up to six other women per film. Later her status as Italy's queen of Sexploitation grew strong enough for her to demand alone-right on nakedness.
While Antonia remains adamant of saving herself for her clumsy blond Vulco (who looks and acts like Prince Valium from Spaceballs), Giovanni presents his favorite conquests with the latest fashion from Rome: a pair of big yellow bloomers. Hence the catchy theme song (La Mutanda) at the start. Owing to a rather under explained misunderstanding, Antonia commits herself to a convent because she is denied the love of Vulco, while it is actually him she is betrothed to all along. Luckily Giovanni decides to help the pair get together, although how he finds the time to do so while pleasing all the other women in town remains a mystery. The action (and I mean this literally) switches to the local convent, where all sorts of nocturnal activities are going on during nightly prayers.
Of course at the time this film was shot, free love was all the rage, but the unrivaled promiscuity shown here borders on the ridiculous. For instance, over in another subplot, hapless servant Ariosto is forced to pimp out the female staff to Antonia's lusty old dad. But mom (who does not look old enough to have carried Edwige in the first place) is on to him. Meanwhile again, Giovanni is painting an alfresco for Vulco's mother, who really does not look old enough to - well, you get the picture. Eventually, all's well that ends well with one of those Asterix final page banquets, except that once Antonia is married, she starts to take after her father...
8 out of 10
