Vizi privati, pubbliche virtù

The kind of thing that can turn you off giggling youthful naked girls and fun-filled orgies forever, this fanciful tale of aristocrats pursuing sexual revolution (trying to create a political revolution by having a lot of sex) is also, indirectly, a propagator of conspiracy theories (or in other words, it seems, "fake news") about the Mayerling Incident. Shocking! But look for the future Mrs Koons and member of the Italian parliament (representing Partito Radicale) amongst the parade of flesh.

Jancso took some cues from Pasolini and made a bawdy nudist romp that celebrates decadence and debauchery with class connotations, but it's less polemical and angry than his Trilogy of Life. It differs from Jancso's more famous films by featuring shorter shots and erotic elements, but it's still exploring his interest in people rebelling against oppressive authority, even if it's the privileged rather than the proletariat that's the focus. Not his best, but it's a seriously underestimated film.

Interesting mostly because you see some people who would help elect Negri to the Italian Parliament, to get out of prison under parliamentary immunity and flee the country before the forces of order could reverse that law, ending up relatively safe thanks to the Mitterrand government and the intervention of Althussers and Guattaris and such. Cf. Angelo Panebianco, 'The Italian Radicals: New Wine in an Old Bottle', in the 1988 collection 'When Parties Fail: Emerging Alternative Organizations'.