Love and Anarchy

1973 whore movie

Rating: 16/20

Plot: An anarchist hides out in a brothel while planning an assassination of Benito Mussolini.

Giancarlo Giannini's wide eyes surrounded by an absurdly freckled face might be the most memorable part of Love and Anarchy, but I was most impressed with the way Lina Wertmuller's camera moves through this brothel and its eccentric crew of prostitutes--the whoreography, you could say. The assassination plot never really gets off the ground, not really helped by me having enough of a grasp on European history to know that Mussolini was never assassinated by a timid, freckled farmer and his whorish conspirators. Instead, the focus turns to the "love" in the first half of the movie's title. Lina Polito is alluring as the brothel occupant Giannini falls for, and although the montages showing the pair running around together might have been a little too long, I never really got tired of them.