Avere Vent'anni: To Be Twenty

Bad girls don't go to heaven.

Although Gloria Guida is widely recognized as a comedy sexploitation actress, there was this one time where she worked in a shocking sexploitation film with one of the crudest finales you could ever imagine. Oddly enough, fans & critics worldwide agree Avere Vent'anni (Being Twenty) is the best film of her extended filmography. Why is this odd? you may ask. Well, because this movie is the only one that is not a campy sex comedy (don't worry, there's plenty of sex & nudity in it) 

Co-starred by Lilli Carati, Avere Vent'anni AKA Being Twenty, AKA To Be Twenty is a 1978 Italian sexploitation film written and directed by Fernando Di Leo, and it tells the story of Lia (Gloria Guida) and Tina (Lilli  Carati) two beautiful girls who meet and realize that they have a lot in common. They are both young, beautiful and pissed off, so they decide to hitchhike their way to Rome to find Nazariota's commune, a place to stay for free and have all the sex they want... or so they think. Things don't go as they have planned though, and soon they become involved in prostitution, the police, an aggressive gang an one of the most unexpected and shocking finales celluloid can deliver. Being Twenty premiered in Italy in 1978, in West Germany in 1979, in Hong Kong in 1981 and it was shown at the Reggio Calabria Film Festival in 2006 in Italy. In addition it was released in DVD for the first time in 2005 as a part of the Il Cinema Secreto Italiano collection. Unfortunately, it was a Region 2 (PAL) release that is, as you can probably guess, currently out of print. The film was also released in VHS during the early 80's and most of the copies that made it outside of Europe ended up in a few selected cult rental stores. 

We don't need men to make a living, do we?

This cream tastes like jizz, You'll like it.

This movie is available in two versions. The English-language version is a badly-dubbed, waste-of-time sex comedy (not unlike a lot of the films co-lead Gloria Guida was starring in at the time). The Italian version is similarly light-hearted for much of its running time, but it does make some serious commentary on police corruption, the confused politics and ultimate hollowness of the 70's era counterculture, and the reactionary nature of male-dominated rural Italy. The ending is unforgettably brutal, inspired no doubt by films like "Last House on the Left" or "Late Night Trains". Like those films it was quite controversial, and really for the same ironic reason--because you really come to like the two lead characters and care what happens to them. This is no mean feat as Gloria Guida had no real acting talent beyond looking (really) good naked and the other lead, porno-starlet-to-be Lili Carati, was, if anything, even less talented.

Fernando Di Leo is a director that gets a lot of criticism; and most of it is unfair in my opinion as he's directed a lot of the best Italian crime movies of the seventies, as well as some other curious gems. To Be Twenty is something of a departure from his crime films and doesn't really fit into any of the main genre headings that were popular in seventies Italy; although at a stretch it could be described as a cross between a sex comedy and an exploitation flick. The film is slightly misguided and that is its main problem as on the one hand it's light and breezy, and on the other hand it actually tries to make some points...with mixed results. The plot focuses on two young girls who are both young, hot and angry that meet on a beach. They set off to hitch a lift together and so begins an odyssey as the pair try to create an existence for themselves in a world overridden with sex, perverts and drugs. They manage to find a place to stay but not everything goes to plan and before long, the girls find themselves living a nightmare.

Let's eat our pussies out.

Fucking you felt really good but I miss the taste of cum in my mouth.

Yeah, but tell me what is Avere Vent'anni about!!

 

Although the movies isn't near being a masterpice of the genre, the viewer ends up feeling sympathy for the two leads. Tina (Carati) who is the feisty and rebellious one and Lia (Guida) who is more sensible and innocent. The two ladies want to have fun and enjoy life so are looking for liberation and after stealing some food from a local supermarket, the set to find a commune for shelter. Whilst they are there all the men apart from the owner appear to be stoned and not capable of doing much especially when the owner says to the girls they can stay there rent free "if they sleep with the men". The only other woman at the commune is finding it a struggle to look after three babies.

Tina and Lia decide they don't want to have to sell themselves in order to stay at the commune and instead decide to sell encyclopedias  for the owner (yes, that was a thing in the 70's I presume) in order to continue staying there. They encounter a few strange people with Lia having another young woman who is lesbian makes advances towards her.

We suck your dick dry if you buy us an encyclopaedia.

Hippies: as portrayed by the Film Industry.

Things change at the commune when a film crew arrive and want to do a documentary on the people living there, only Tina and Lia talk to them and then we get to find out more about their backgrounds which were not pleasant as they grew up. Then they get mixed up within police corruption and the commune is searched for drugs from an apparent tip off which results in the girls being deported...

On a side note, Lilli Carati became a full time Italian porn star in the late 80s, sharing on screen, or should I say on bed time with none other than Rocco Siffredi himself. Unfortunately, she died in 2014 due to a brain tumor. Before she became an actress she was named "Miss Elegance" in 1974, thus starting a modeling career in Milan. Her acting career started in 1976 with La professoressa di scienze naturali The same year Gloria Guida became "Miss Teenage Italy" and starred her first two films La Ragazzina & La Minorenne.

Did you think you could get away with murder, you bitches?

Unexpectedly shocking finale.

Back to the movie, I can say the overall tone of the movie is one of the best things about it as the director excellently captures the hippy-style care free atmosphere through the two young girls. The film stars Gloria Guida and Lilli Carati; both of whom serve the movie well in the looks department, especially when their clothes come off, but don't exactly set the film on fire with great acting. However, luckily this is a film that doesn't need great acting to succeed. The plot flows well and the two girls provide likable characters that make the film fun to watch. It's not exactly plot heavy and the film basically follows the girls on their unplanned journey right up until we come to the tragic ending. The ending is actually rather strange as it doesn't fit the tone of the movie and actually looks more like something straight out of a roughie film. However, it is rather powerful and won't be forgotten in a hurry; and the reason for that is mostly down to the way we are made to like the characters throughout the film. Overall, this film probably won't be for everyone's taste; but if you like this sort of stuff, you could do worse. 

Gloria Guida in the nude.

Lilli Carati.

 Here's the censored made for TV edition of the film with the English dubbing:

And here's the theatrical version of the film in the original Italian language: