A Common Sense of Modesty

Il comune senso del pudore, released internationally as A Common Sense of Modesty, is a 1976 Italian anthology comedy directed by Alberto Sordi, who also co-wrote the script with Rodolfo Sonego and stars on screen. Structured as four self-contained sketches in the commedia all'italiana vein, the film satirizes the shifting moral codes of 1970s Italy. Its episodes mock the sexual revolution, the fashion for so-called free love across Europe, and the changing place of shame and propriety in everyday life. The ensemble cast features Claudia Cardinale, Philippe Noiret, Florinda Bolkan, Cochi Ponzoni and Dagmar Lassander alongside Sordi. At roughly 123 minutes, the picture moves between satire and lightly erotic comedy, sketching a nation torn between inherited respectability and the new liberties of its era.