After a clip of Brigitta Helm as Maria the robot and a few Biblical wood cuts, we get Maurice Ronet and the so glamorous Evelyn Stewart checking into Hotel Lido's honeymoon suite. He's fighting temptation, connected to his Catholic guilt with numerous childhood flashbacks, which doesn't stop him taking an interest in the also so glamorous Lea Massari across the corridor.
Then there's the noisy toilet.
Celebrity leads, handsome black and white photography and a sparse but characteristic Morricone score build an expectation which the grim film doesn't meet.
Even without knowing that twenty minutes were cut by the Italian censor, the piece has an incomplete feeling.
The director's handful of films remain a foot note to the Italian art film.
Then there's the noisy toilet.
Celebrity leads, handsome black and white photography and a sparse but characteristic Morricone score build an expectation which the grim film doesn't meet.
Even without knowing that twenty minutes were cut by the Italian censor, the piece has an incomplete feeling.
The director's handful of films remain a foot note to the Italian art film.
