rooak It might take an Italian background to appreciate this film. As a non-Italian viewer I found the humour (high farce) rather dull. The film had almost no characterization, a rather muddy plot line and absolutely no emotional interest. I tuned out constantly, and was glad for distractions.The third line of the anthology, about the sexual interest of a group of men in a young girl was particularly uncomfortable, with its pedophile themes, which Germi unpleasantly treated as though only humorous, not at all troubling.The overall perspective was purely male — the women in the film were simply either objects of desire or impediments to desire's fulfillment. I wouldn't bother watching this film again.

altyn This is a merciless exposure of ways of thinking and behaviors that plagued (and maybe plague still) provincial towns. It starts lightly as a comedy centered on the old "cuckhold" theme, but it makes clear from the first minutes that the "Ladies and Gentlemen" of the original title are a bunch of leering gossipers, held together only by affluence, sexual intrigues and pretensions. Then we are made to witness a dream of love and liberation shattered to pieces by social conventions and a lot of pressure (and this is where a character that started comically grows up to tragic size). The last novella is material for courtroom drama - but there are no heroes here and everybody is just as corrupt as everybody else, the victim excepted, so much that we may feel sick on hearing that "justice has triumphed". The director subtly extracts from us laughter, but a laughter that risks becoming a desperate howl.

Harry Carasso I simply can't understand how a moviegoer like me missed this gem when it was first shown here - and won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Festival. Especially being already convinced that Pietro Germi was one of the most talented directors of the Italian after war films. He made a screen adaptation of one of the greatest literary hits of the sixties, Carlo Emilio Gadda's QUER PASTICCIACCIO BRUTTO DI VIA MERULANA, a perfect combination of Italian language and Roman dialect. Concerning SIGNORE E SIGNORI, the cast is not all-stars, but extremely equal in its aspects, none is tops but none is dull either. Special rewards for the well known Franco Fabrizi, for exquisite Beba Loncar and the almost introducing Virna Lisi, who became famous for a long time. The atmosphere of this little Italian town was splendidly illustrated. I used to stay in Treviso when traveling to Venice, the City of the Doges being too expensive for me and Treviso, also nicely cut by its canaletti, was only at a half hour by train from the famous but hardly available Lagoon City. A huge Bravo! also for the remasterization, absolutely perfect. Warmly recommended to everybody who wants to have a big laugh and in the same time measure how mean some people were just half a century ago. Harry Carasso, Paris, France

FilmCriticLalitRao According to the veteran Italian film director Ettore Scola,Italian people have the intrinsic knack of ridiculing themselves long before someone else can dare to point a figure at them.For them there is hardly any human sentiment which cannot be mocked.By doing so they have remained the champions of auto derision in this world.This is one fundamental quality which distinguishes them from the other nationalities of Europe.As far as a discussion on this film goes,its English title "The birds,The bees and The Italians" does perfect justice to the spirit of the film. The entire film is a laugh riot and the best thing about the screenplay is that although the depicted situations might appear common place but they never leave any room for any kind of guess work or speculation.So the end result is an intelligent film which entertains until the maximum possible extent of human enjoyment. Even the black and white photography is advantageous as it alludes to a time when there was too little advancement of technology. Recommended for those people who would like to have a nice laugh but would not dare to copy under any circumstances the actions portrayed in the film.