'Tis Pity She's a Whore (film)


Tis Pity She's a Whore also known as Peccato che sia una puttana is a 1971 Italian romance-drama film co-written and directed by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi and starring Charlotte Rampling, Oliver Tobias and Fabio Testi. It is based on the tragedy with the same name written by John Ford. The music was composed by Ennio Morricone.

Synopsis

In the city of Mantua, during the Italian Renaissance, Giovanni, the son of a propertied man, is sent to study abroad and he never meets his sister, Annabella, who is a couple of years younger than him. After ten years of separation, the now beautiful Annabella is reunited with her brother for the first time, as adolescents. The young siblings are immediately attracted and can not help to fall in love with each other. After struggling with their feelings for some time Giovanni and Annabella begin a secret relationship, and she becomes pregnant. Knowing that the world will condemn them, Giovanni leaves his father's villa, and Annabella accepts the marriage proposal of her suitor, the wealthy noble Soranzo. After Soranzo discovers that he has been the object of a deception, he makes plans for a bloody vengeance.

Cast

The film was released in France under the title Dommage qu'elle soit une putain.

Reception

Italian film critic Marco Giusti writes that Rampling undresses as much as she can, but that it is Fabio Testi's physique that is imposing: Always naked and often framed at the height of his buttocks, it is causing the spectators some embarrassment. Giusti perfectly remembers the sight of Testi's big hairy buttocks on the screen of the cinema Verdi in Genoa.
However, Teo Mora "forced" Giusti and Enrico Ghezzi to stage it at the Teatro dell'Archivolto in Genoa. Giusti acted as Soranzo, Testi's character; he has not done any theatre since.