A crush on... Edwige Fenech
Quel gran pezzo dell’Ubalda tutta nuda e tutta calda...
This is not only how a completely new cinematic genre is presented to the world, but also how its greatest exponent is.
We are talking about the Commedia Sexy All’Italiana - a mixture of eroticism and comedy - and Edwige Fenech.
She was the actress who took the highest number of showers on set. Undressing in front of the camera was never a problem for her but she never sold her body and soul. Although the genre - which smashed the box office even if it was a series B one - appeared revolutionary and scandalous in the 70s, Fenech herself says ironically that those films, seen with the eyes of today, seem like schoolgirl’s fantasies. This is also because in those years the censorship was used as much as Tiktok is used by Charlie D'Amelio.
This genre born in the period of the so-called sexual revolution and that consecrated her as its queen, has seen her take on the role of Giovannona Coscialunga, the magistrate, the doctor, the teacher, the policewoman; she has been in more than seventy films in the space of a decade becoming an international sex symbol and the erotic dream par excellence of several generations from the 70s onwards.
We could say that by cataloging all her movies in alphabetical order we would struggle to find empty spaces.
When Italians’s tastes changed and the sexy comedy became the genre of the cinepanettone (more suitable for families), few stars of the time managed to shine again. Some took refuge in porn, others disappeared from the scene, few others managed to fit into cinema or television. Edwige was able to demonstrate her true and great talents as an actress in the theater as well as in cinema and television, as a presenter and as a producer.
Fun fact: the very well-known director Quentin Tarantino is a Commedia Sexy all’Italiana aficionado and Edwige Fenech is one of his inspiring muses. His admiration for her led him not only to propose her cameos in his films but, even, to call the character played by Mike Myers in Inglorious Bastards Ed Fenech in her honor.
At first “la bambolona" of b-movies with an erotic background, then a playboy model, and finally a successful actress, presenter and producer. A multi-faceted woman not only on set, with her characters, but also in life with her brilliant career in every area in which she has applied. In short, she never missed a shot. Edwige, teach us how!
After all, you are “L’Insegnante".