La Svergognata: The Shameless Woman

Shame on you Leonora!

1974 marks the year the world witnessed the debut of Leonora Fani in the film industry, the sexploitation film industry to be more precise. Directed by the rather unknown Giuliano Biagetti who worked as director, writer and producer of Italian erotic films, he is known for Decameroticus & directing Gloria Guida in La Novizia. La Svergognata AKA The Shameless Woman, AKA La Desvergonzada, can be best described as a forbidden love story between a married couple, their horny teenage daughter and a former lover. Although the film has been officially released on DVD in Italy, such release is currently out of print and there are no international official editions available as of yet. Unfortunately, the available copies that are online,  feature neither English subtitles nor dubbing of any language, so I guess it's  a good time for you to pay a little visit to your local Italian Culture Center and sign for an Italian language course. 

La Svergognata is starred by Philippe Leroy (who looks like The Flash's John Wesley-Shipp) as Fabio Lorenzi; Leonora Fani as Ornella Bernardi and last but not least, blonde bombshell Barbara Bouchet as Silvia Lorenzi (yes, Fabio's wife)

I'm your wife Fabio, of course I'll take anal!

I'm your teenage craving Fabio, of course I'll swallow!

In a nutshell, La Svergognata is about a writer (Philip Leroy)comes to stay at an island resort and gets involved with a teenage lolita (Fani) who is there with her parents and rather malicious best friend. She teases the older man mercilessly--going to a hotel and dancing with him naked and then suddenly getting dressed and running off to a party with a young American guy. But it's not so much because she is malicious, but because she is really an insecure virgin. Finally, he gives up on her after his beautiful wife (Barbara Bouchet) shows up. But the younger woman becomes jealous and is not going to give up so easily. So, essentially this film is about a malicious love triangle that has a poor man making the hardest decision of his life: Is it Barbara Bouchet's blonde and experienced beauty the best? or is it Fani's malicious teenage teasing?

In the past, we reviewed many films about the same love triangle/forbidden love story line, and as a matter of fact, most of the sexploitation movies from the 60's, 70's & 80's were mostly based upon  teenage characters craving sex, something that allowed many beautiful actresses to rise to stardom through making a few of these films. Names like Christina Lindberg, Ornella Muti, Gloria Guida, Laura Antonelli, Peggy Church, Marie Liljedhal and Solveig Andersson  are only a few I can think of right now as actresses that portrayed horny teenage girls more than once throughout their careers. 

a walk on the beach keeps the dick craving away.

I'm confused, do men want me?

So, is La Svergognata just another teensploitation in an extended list of rip offs?

Yes and no depending on what your personal standards define a movie as worth watching or a total waste of time. Philippe Leroy & Barbara Bouchet (despite showing up only after half of the movie is done, and not as naked as she's been in other films) certainly deliver in their roles. Leroy is a bored writer who's lost inspiration long ago, while Bouchet  is his believable wife. Leonora Fani, on the other hand, is a newcomer to the world of acting on screen, and yet, her role as malicious teen Ornella is skillfully carried out, I might add.  Nevertheless, the film's plot is highly derivative and won't bring any refreshing ideas to a genre, that although it was on its peak in the early 70's, it quickly hit rock bottom by the end of the decade. In its defense, I'd say La Svergognata is neither a pretentious film nor an avant garde softcore film desguised as art. In addition, its running time is only 78 minutes, so it doesn't beat around the bushes. So by the time, Fabio's wife arrives on the island, things go south pretty quickly, and just before he can give Ornella a good fuck, his wife gives him a hard time and leaves. Unfortunately, Ornella is more of a tease than a slut, so after she is confronted  by Silvia, she decides to call it a day too, leaving our poor infamous main character with blue balls.

I wanna suck it.

Uhm, nope, now I don't want to.

La Svergognata was filmed in its entirety on the beautiful island of Ischia, near Naples. Most of the outdoor scenes are stunning just for the fact they were filmed on the island. The cinematography of the film was in charge of Antonio Borghesi (a regular in Biagetti's flicks). The music was composed and arranged by Berto Pisano, who worked mostly making music for horror films. His most remembered work is 1981's Burial Ground: The nights of Terror.

Although the film premiered only in Italy in 1974, the film was internationally released in Spain & Greece. The film never made it to American theaters. However, the VHS tape release, made it a very popular cult film during the 80's outside of Europe. If you're lucky enough, you can still find copies of it around the internet. The only known releases of the film were the original Italian version (bootlegged as is) and a Spanish dubbed version, so a second language diploma may not seem that useless now.

The Spanish dubbed VHS.

Good girl! you swallowed it to the last drop!

Author Susan Bassnett wrote the book Feminist Experiences (RLE Feminis Theory) in 1986. In such book, she has a few lines for Leonora Fani: 

Section 2 opens with an interview with Leonora Fani, an actress who has appeared in box-office pornographic movies, one of which featured her having intercourse with a large dog. Leonora Fani defends her work with the now traditional "they don't have to see it if they don't want to" line...

Now, let's straighten things up. First, Leonora Fani has never worked in a pornographic film. Her movies are either known as softcore or erotic films. The 1975 porn film "Calde Labbra" features a brief intervention by her, but it has nothing to do with real sex. Second, she's right, if you don't like her movies don't fucking watch them, and that's it! She was an erotic film actress and nude model because she chose to, she wasn't forced to do it. The 70's were a very different time and age where society was opened to every source of entertainment with almost no restrictions. She was a part of it, she didn't conspire against women to become sex objects. 

There's nothing wrong with erotic films, you know.

To each his own ma'am!

Overall, La Svergognata's relevance is evidently the fact that it marks Leonora Fani's debut in the world of the erotic film genre. Plotwise, it's the same story that has been told way too many times and in some cases with better production or a more sex centered focused plot that may be more interesting to certain viewers. So, as a teenage love story, lame. As an erotic movie, a little less lame, and as the debut of a young Italian actress, well, it can't get any better than this. Sharing on screen time with experienced actors (Leroy & Bouchet) is priceless. Thanks to the popularity this film got her in Italy, she was able of nailing around 15 roles in different sexploitation films. If we were to rank all of her films, our ranking would be as follows:

1.Pensione Paura

2.Nene

3.Giallo a Venezia (yes, you read that right)
4.Bestialitá (yes, you read that right too! it's our next review!)

5.The Last Round
6.Naked Massacre
7.La Svergognata
8.Eden no Sono
9.The Private Lesson (yet to be reviewed)
10.Sensitivita.

Bare in mind she worked in more films but in very minor roles.

Barbara Bouchet.

Leonora Fani.

Finally we move to our video section with some very audiovisual material. 

Here's the movie trailer:



Here's the main theme from the soundtrack:



And here's the entire film (Italian only) courtesy of YouTube: