Frivolous Renaissance Stories Erotic comedy is a very specific genre, because you need to try not to cross the finest line separating light eroticism from vulgarity, while managing to shoot a story beautifully and cheerfully. To a certain extent, Andrey Benkendorf managed to do this. Erotic comedy is a completely new genre for Russian cinema, and although by 1994 many films with the “attractive” number 18+ were shot – not all of them can be considered erotic, if only because the “nudes” on the screen are far from erotic. Probably, the director understood all this perfectly, so he did not look for a plot story “on the side”, but turned to the most classics.
Of course, before Giovanni Boccaccio wrote “about it”, but the Italian writer and poet, who had a significant influence, along with Dante and Petrarch, on the development of the whole European culture – a figure extremely authoritative. The main work of Boccaccio, immortalized his name, was his famous and illustrious "Decameron" (10-day stories) (1350-1353) - a collection of 100 stories told by a society of 7 ladies and 3 men. True, not all stories are frivolous subtext, many of them are imbued with the spirit of free thinking, rejection of ascetic morality, cheerful humor.
The second author, whose work formed the basis of the script, is the Italian writer of the XVI century Agnolo Firenzuola. His most famous work is Conversations about Love (1524), written in the traditions of Boccaccio’s Decameron. The book takes place against the backdrop of beautiful nature, where three ladies and three boys tell novels and compose poems. The third author – Anton Francesco Grazzini, who was an adherent of the Florentine literary tradition – in his “Evening meals” gathers five young men and four ladies in the villa of a beautiful widow, where they tell before dinner novels of comic and tragic motives.
In the basis of his film, Andrei Benkendorf put 7 stories taken from different authors and united by a “through” plot. It turned out, though fresh, but in places – interesting. The film is clearly lacking in brightness - after all, Venice! It’s 1994, but it’s still... The main plus of the paintings are bright actors: Ruslana Pisanka, Olga Sumy, Elena Zatolokina, Larisa Nedin. Having no “nude-experience”, they tried to endow their heroines with a certain attractiveness, which looks quite advantageous against the background of two actors-heavyweights.
Armen Dzhigarkhanyan is no stranger to playing heroes/anti-hero lovers (he has had many such roles since 1991). Enough of his inimitable voice, facial expression - and the image is ready. Just amazing played fornari pharmacist George Vitsin! Needless to say, an amazing actor! In his performance, Fornari is not at all a “cuckold”, and a person who for some reason is insanely sorry. That's what art does. In general, a rather funny film turned out, which once again proves that real talent in a mediocre role can shine brightly.