# A Common Sense of Modesty
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{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox film
| name = A Common Sense of Modesty
| image = Il comune senso del pudore.jpg
| caption =
| director = [Alberto Sordi](/source/Alberto_Sordi)
| producer = [Fausto Saraceni](/source/Fausto_Saraceni)
| writer = Alberto Sordi
[Rodolfo Sonego](/source/Rodolfo_Sonego)
| narrator =
| starring = Alberto Sordi
[Claudia Cardinale](/source/Claudia_Cardinale)
[Philippe Noiret](/source/Philippe_Noiret)
[Cochi Ponzoni](/source/Cochi_Ponzoni)
[Florinda Bolkan](/source/Florinda_Bolkan)
| music = [Piero Piccioni](/source/Piero_Piccioni)
| cinematography = [Luigi Kuveiller](/source/Luigi_Kuveiller)
[Giuseppe Ruzzolini](/source/Giuseppe_Ruzzolini)
| editing = Tatiana Casini Morigi
| distributor = [Medusa Film](/source/Medusa_Film)
| released = {{Film date|1976|df=y}}
| runtime = 126 minutes
| country = Italy
| language = Italian
| budget =
}}
'''''A Common Sense of Modesty''''' ([Italian](/source/Italian_language): ''Il comune senso del pudore'') is a 1976 Italian anthology comedy film directed by [Alberto Sordi](/source/Alberto_Sordi) and starring Sordi, [Claudia Cardinale](/source/Claudia_Cardinale) and [Philippe Noiret](/source/Philippe_Noiret).
==Plot==
The film consists of four segments. The plot centers on the changes in morality that involved Italian society in the 1970s, mainly focusing on the widespread circulation of erotic movies and magazines.
===First segment===
A mature worker, Giacinto, decides to celebrate his silver wedding anniversary bringing his wife Erminia to the cinema after a long time. Wandering around Rome, they innocently fall into a number of erotic movies. The couple is initially shocked, but soon start to be somehow fascinated by the sexual content.
===Second segment===
Ottavio Caramessa, a small-town teacher and writer, is hired as a director by a pornographic magazine, jumping suddenly from rags to riches with the help of his extrovert typist, Loredana. He is soon arrested but has no regrets, being certain to fight a noble fight against obscurantism.
===Third segment===
Tiziano Ballarin, the local magistrate of a small town in [Veneto](/source/Veneto), takes strict measures against adult magazines. While the village is excited by his moralistic – and in some cases hypocritical – campaign, Tiziano's wife, Armida, becomes the target of one of the magazines her husband harshly fights.
===Fourth segment===
The award-winning German actress Ingrid Streissberg refuses to shoot a sodomy scene in a film adaptation of ''[Lady Chatterley's Lover](/source/Lady_Chatterley's_Lover)'', produced by the hot tempered Giuseppe Costanzo (somewhat inspired by [Dino De Laurentiis](/source/Dino_De_Laurentiis)). Having invested a great amount of money, he tries everything to convince the star, and even hires a "group of experts" – among which a self-styled progressive priest – to assert the considerable social and cultural relevance of the scene.
===Epilogue===
The day of the [premiere](/source/premiere), all the characters express their favorable opinion about the movie.
==Cast==
; First segment
* [Alberto Sordi](/source/Alberto_Sordi) as Giacinto Colonna
* [Rossana Di Lorenzo](/source/Rossana_Di_Lorenzo) as Erminia Colonna
* Enrico Marciani as Jolly Cinema director
* Macha Magall as the Countess in ''La cavalcata''
* [Franca Scagnetti](/source/Franca_Scagnetti) as [trattoria](/source/trattoria) waitress
; Second segment
* [Cochi Ponzoni](/source/Cochi_Ponzoni) as prof. Ottavio Caramessa
* [Florinda Bolkan](/source/Florinda_Bolkan) as Loredana Davoli
* [Gisela Hahn](/source/Gisela_Hahn) as Ursula Keller
* [Silvia Dionisio](/source/Silvia_Dionisio) as Orchidea
* [Giò Stajano](/source/Gi%C3%B2_Stajano) as fashion photographer
; Third segment
* [Claudia Cardinale](/source/Claudia_Cardinale) as Armida Ballarin
* [Pino Colizzi](/source/Pino_Colizzi) as Tiziano Ballarin
; Fourth segment
* [Philippe Noiret](/source/Philippe_Noiret) as Giuseppe Costanzo
* [Dagmar Lassander](/source/Dagmar_Lassander) as Ingrid Streissberg
* [David Warbeck](/source/David_Warbeck) as Mellors
* [Renzo Marignano](/source/Renzo_Marignano) as ''Lady Chatterley 76'' director
* [Giacomo Furia](/source/Giacomo_Furia) as ''Lady Chatterley 76'' production manager
* [Armando Brancia](/source/Armando_Brancia) as Mainardi
* Manfred Freyberger as Ingrid's husband
* [Ugo Gregoretti](/source/Ugo_Gregoretti) as critic
* Giulio Cesare Castello as second critic
* [Marina Cicogna](/source/Marina_Cicogna) as production advisor
* [Jimmy il Fenomeno](/source/Jimmy_il_Fenomeno) as himself
== Production ==
The film was announced by [Cineriz](/source/Cineriz) in 1975, as an omnibus comedy film starring Sordi, [Nino Manfredi](/source/Nino_Manfredi), [Monica Vitti](/source/Monica_Vitti) and [Paolo Villaggio](/source/Paolo_Villaggio), each one directing his segment.[{{Cite book |last=Giusti |first=Marco |author-link=Marco Giusti |title=Dizionario Stracult della commedia sexy |date=2019 |publisher=Bloodbuster edizioni |isbn=978-88-943385-3-9 |pages=173–5 |chapter=Il comune senso del pudore}}]
==Reception ==
Film historian Rémi Fournier Lanzoni described ''A Common Sense of Modesty'' as "a courageous film, as it represented a difficult subject and in particular the immaturity of an Italian public poorly prepared to face the amorality of the pornographic film industry and the subsequent sottocultura (mass subculture) it provided".[{{cite book |last1=Fournier Lanzoni |first1=Rémi |title=Comedy Italian Style: The Golden Age of Italian Film Comedies |date=2008 |publisher=[Bloomsbury Academic](/source/Bloomsbury_Academic) |isbn=978-0-8264-1821-0 |language=en}}] Domestically, the film was a box office success, grossing over 1,700 million [lire](/source/Italian_lira).