The Private Lesson (1975)

A Major Disappointment

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

I initially thought this was another low-brow 70's Italian "scholastic" sex comedy like the "Insegnante" series where Edwige Fenech plays a ridiculously young and sexy teacher or the "Liceale" series where Gloria Guida plays a ridiculously mature-looking and sexy high school student. But this is a more serious and realistic movie kind of along the lines of Massimo Dallamano's "Innocence and Desire" or Salvatore Samperi's seminal "Malizia". (Like the latter film this involves male teenagers sexually blackmailing adult females). Baker was more mature at the time than someone like Edwige Fenech (she played Fenech's MOTHER in a film a year or two later)and thus much more believable as a teacher. And the younger actors here are at least half-way convincing as actual teenagers rather than being 30-year-old comic buffoons like Alvaro Vitali (who was in ALL the "Insegnante" and "Liceale" films, but is thankfully absent here).Carroll Baker is the new piano teacher in a provincial Italian town. She draws the attention of two of her male students. The experienced and self-assured (but perhaps also homosexual) "Gabrielle" manages to take compromising photos of her and uses them for sexual blackmail, not on his own behalf, but on the behalf of his virginal friend, "Alessandro". "Alessandro" is a pampered, sweet-natured mama's boy, but it's really amazing he's still a virgin, not only because of his friend's machinations with the teacher, but also because his "Gabrille's" very sexy and very willing sister (Leanora Fani) keeps throwing herself at him. "Alessandro's" father (Carlo Guiffre) meanwhile is hilariously sex obsessed and he also has an uncle (Renzo Montagnini) who's pretty much the same way, but much more successful with women. After a lot of initial fumbling, "Alessandro" finally manages to score, in short order, with his uncle's voluptuous maid (Femi Benussi), his mature but attractive teacher Baker, and his Lolitaesque classmate Fani (quite a trifecta if you've ever seen those three actresses).This is not a great movie. It's better than any of the "Insegnante" and "Liceale" films, but certainly not as good as "Malizia"or "Innocence and Desire". It's pretty sexist and politically incorrect by today's standards (Guiffre's drooling monologues about young girls comes off as a lot more disturbing than funny today). It is interesting though in that this is the one Italian film I've seen (and I've seen WAY too many) that is most like the Israeli "Lemon Popsicle" series or all the early 80's American teen comedies about "losing it". Whether it had any real influence on the later genres is questionable, but it does at least share an English-language title with one of the first of the "losing it" American comedies, the Sylvia Kristel-vehicle "Private Lessons" (which certainly owed SOMETHING to these 70's Italian sex comedies). This is worth seeing.

This is a movie that plays to teenage fantasies, curiosities, and fears. Because of this, you will probably be most attracted to the movie if you are a teenage boy. For others, it will appear contrived and cause discomfort, rather than wholehearted entertainment.