Available
from Luminous Film & Video Wurks
| Review
by Crites
A
quick word of warning here, this review
will include spoilers for both versions
of the film appearing in this special edition
release. Not only is this essential in differentiating
between the director's original Italian
version and the watered-down release that
reached U.S. theaters, but the endings really
make the films and an explanation is necessary
as to assure that the American version (or
any censored Italian version) will be strongly
avoided.
Hot freewheeling Euro-hippies
Lia (Lilli Carati) and Tina (Gloria Guida)
meet while skinny-dipping in the ocean after
a seaside love-in. "I'm young, beautiful
and pissed off!" says dark-haired Tina
by way of introduction. "I too am young,
beautiful and a little pissed off,"
replies blond Lia. And on this youthfully
ignorant note of rebellion a friendship
is born. (But not consummated, if you know
what I mean...)
Our two pieces of young stuff
set off hitchhiking, but despite the bra-less
cleavage and slit mini-dresses on display
the girls have some trouble landing a ride.
After a couple odd encounters they finally
make it to Rome, whereupon they figure they've
got it made. Armed with big tits, foul mouths
and an utter contempt for capitalist morality
Tina and Lia gleefully rip off a series
of local merchants on the way to their destination,
Nazariota's commune.
Here they hope to score free
room and board, along with some beatnik
Roman boys. But there's no free ride awaiting
them at Nazariota's; living in the city
costs money, and if the chicks can't pay
rent they'll have to make it up some other
way. When the broads start in with their
mantra of "We're young, beautiful,
and..." upon hearing that they might
have to go to work, completely unfazed the
tubby old guru simply replies, "Get
pissed off in the kitchen." Even the
possibility of getting laid is looking sparse
– all the guys are too stoned to ball,
and are decidedly unwashed in any case.
Nazariota aims to fix this
however; if the broads are broke and unwilling
to work, the least they can do is fuck for
their room and board, screwing visitors
to the flophouse in an effort Naz hopes
will keep the half-assed commune stocked
with ready labor. The brief softcore orgy
that follows is as unsatisfying as everything
the girls have experienced at the commune
thus far, and left feeling empty in the
aftermath Lia suggests that she and Tina
get it on...
Afterwards there's a bit of
music video as the girls dance through the
streets to the strains of an oddly traditional-sounding
Italian pop song in a commercial for freedom
and sexuality.
Back at the commune an independent
film crew has dropped by to shoot a documentary
on "absolute freedom." Filming
the girls and the stories of their lives
up to this point, we find that they're largely
as empty and unpleasant as they are now.
Three "feminist actresses" then
recite the work of Valerie Solanas, even
as Tina finally bags the stoned-out hippie
hunk she set her sights on earlier.
Deciding they don't want to
screw Nazariota's hippie deadbeats any longer,
the girls are sent out selling encyclopedias.
After we're treated to a couple of sexual
misadventures in this field the commune
is raided and the lot of them carted off
to jail in a contrived bust meant to crack
down on revolutionary activity. The following
interrogations are largely jokeworthy, brutality
traded for hippie bullshit, and Tina and
Lia end up getting kicked out of town as
shiftless prostitutes.
On their way out of the region
the girls stop at a country diner for a
quick bite. Unfazed by their recent humiliation
the young lasses are in high spirits, shaking
their short-shorts to the jukebox and making
a bit of a scene in the middle of a family-style
restaurant populated only by men. Some of
the patrons are aroused by the young girls'
antics, but others are put off by the brazen
display. Regardless, all eyes are fixed
on the "two little bitches," and
when the girls appear to enjoy each other's
company more than that of their admirers
(despite a noteworthy Italian version of
the chicken dance) the party becomes downright
hostile.
Manhandled and nearly auctioned
off to the highest bidder, the girls break
away and storm out of the café, walking
back to the main highway along a small country
road. As twilight darkens their way the
girls become apprehensive, and with good
reason - they suddenly find themselves being
chased by several carloads of men from the
restaurant. The chase is a brief one, and
led deeper into the woods the women are
beaten and stripped. But instead of being
raped, Tina is savagely penetrated with
a tree branch and Lia has her skull cracked
with another. "Teasing..." one
of the men says as the group walks away.
As they leave one of the men kicks the girls'
tape player on, and sappy pop music plays
into the credits.
That was the real version
of the film; in the American issue, TO BE
TWENTY, a violently cautionary tale of the
perils facing the free love generation has
been turned into a worthless T & A hippie-fest.
Instead of meeting at the dissolution of
a sordid love-in, in this one Tina (the
blonde one) and Linda (the brunette one)
are already girlfriends on the road. Early
on they meet a more active and revolutionary
Nazariota, now going by the name of "Shining
Ray," but spurn his offer to join his
corps of "Sapper" activists for
a ride to a country diner...the same one
from the end of AVERE VENT'ANNI. Events
transpire much as they had in the original,
with the exception of the ending; instead
of being brutalized and murdered in the
woods, one of the killers jumps out of a
car just in time to warn the group that
the police are on their way, breaking up
the little rape party and allowing the girls
to go on their merry way.
And with the original film's
shocking climax defused so early on, one
is left with little else. The broads make
it to Rome, have the same disappointing
experiences with the commune, play the same
liberated woman games, and basically skip
gaily through the picture without a care
in the world. (Quite the opposite of the
original, where it was this very attitude
that inspired their horrible fate.)
There is of course the hippie
music video/dance party through the streets
of Rome, and encyclopedia sales are the
girls' own bright idea, intended to fund
their further adventures. Another notable
difference is that while this is supposed
to be a film about the children of the free
love era, in the American version most of
the references to lesbianism are removed
in favor of over-extending the straight
love scenes. The girls expand their life
stories a bit more in front of the documentary
filmmakers, there's a bit more background
on the conspiracy to bust the commune, and
the interrogation is somewhat more interesting
– this time the young ladies are let
off scot-free with barely a warning. With
this they trot off to Bali, hustling the
entire way, with the credits rolling over
a shot of their hitchhiking asses cocked
toward traffic.
All in all the U.S. release
is a kinder, gentler, more meaningless picture;
the dirty hippie contingent probably loved
it. (Well, except for the creepy clown's
ranting about astral death: "Let's
all commit suicide...") Whereas this
version is an empty-headed hippy-dippy version
of life on the bum, the original Italian
version expresses a much stronger sense
of disapproval, one that's so savage it
borders on the fascistic. The director makes
his statement crystal clear from the beginning;
hippies, and hippie chicks in particular,
are loose worthless creatures who deserve
everything they get. Not only is this evident
in the violent climax, but throughout the
film everyone treats and speaks to the girls
much more harshly than they do in the American
version. The original moral remains the
most apt however; the girls try to cash
in on the free love era and fail, as did
so many of their real life models.
Originally released
in 1978, AVERE VENT'ANNI is here presented
in region-free widescreen. The two-disc
set features optional English subtitles
for the Italian version and includes special
features such as brief interviews with director
Di Leo (on censorship of the film), Ray
Lovelock (Tina's hippie lover; "I'm
sorry – I really don't remember"),
biographies of the starlets (of the two
Lilli Carati's is much more interesting,
covering her descent into drugs and hardcore
pornography), and a pair of photo galleries.
