Actor who rose to fame in a series of Italian sex comedies in the 60s and 70s

In the 1960s and 70s, while most serious filmgoers associated Italian cinema with great directors such as Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Luchino Visconti, Italy was also producing a series of popular sex comedies, sold predominantly on the pulchritudinous charms of the leading lady. One of the prima donnas of the popular commedia all’italiana films was Laura Antonelli, who has died of a heart attack aged 73.

An often scantily clad Antonelli would allow herself to be leered at by men on screen and in the audience, subject to what feminist critics defined as “the male gaze”. Yet despite the raunchy nature of her roles, she was always a subtle performer.

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