Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)

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Ian H Nov 30 Ranges from genius to nonsense. See more Julian B Nov 23 Another great performance from Gene wilder, great Film See more Alejandro E @Alex970 May 25 Omnibus film with seven stories, assembled with colourful characters, in which taboo questions about sex are answered. There are elements that seem out of time, but the main attraction is the characteristic humour of actor-director-writer Woody Allen. See more Alain E @AlainE Apr 23 Outstanding performance from Gene Wilder and the sheep. See more Marc Z @TKDLife 02/02/2023 This movie is unique and ahead of its time in so many ways. For 1972 this candid and funny look at various aspects of sexuality is fun to watch. It is an anthology of different tales covering topics such as, "Do Aphrodisiacs Work", and "Why Do Woman Have Orgasms". The various skits feature a stellar cast in skits taking place at various locations, in a variety of time periods. The candid talk about sexuality is progressive and fun; however, there are elements that would probably not hold up in today's environment. The sketch about whether Transvestites are Homosexuals is funny, but would never be able to be made today-perhaps that is what I like about it. The sketch with the late John Carradine as a mad sexual scientist was my favorite. There are notable gags, lines, and visuals that made this a classic. While Allen progressed into more romantic comedies, these films helped boost his notoriety worldwide. See more 12/19/2019 The first Woody Allen film to become a genuine financial hit, it was the twelfth highest grossing film in the year of it's release, this movie feels like an extended episode of Saturday Night Live with it's format. Allen based the film on a popular sex manual that was the highest selling non-fiction book of all time when the film was made and he does make some interesting, if dated, comments on how men and women experience sex differently. There is also the delight of seeing a comedic performer as distinctive and offbeat as Gene Wilder work around Allen's style of comedy in one particularly absurd section of the film. The first section is perhaps the least interesting as Allen takes on the role of an unfunny court jester hated by the king who employs him. In one creepy scene he ‘cops a feel' of the breasts of the Queen, Lynn Redgrave, who appears slightly attracted to him and with the introduction of an aphrodisiac she decides to have sex with him. Her comically large chastity belt proves difficult to remove and all of the noise that the two make attracts the attention of the King who has him killed. There is fascination in seeing the prim and proper Redgrave play a sexual woman with few inhibitions and she does manage to make us believe in her total infatuation with Allen despite his outwardly unattractive appearance. Sadly the skit gets lost in physical comedy about forcing various objects near Redgrave's crotch that have no chance of opening her belt. The skit also offers Allen and opportunity to reflect on the difficulty of being a comedian as he is heckled for his poor work and disrespected by others but this is an idea that is never fully developed because the skit does not run on long enough to see the toll that this abuse takes on Allen. The second section of the film is easily the funniest as Wilder is put to great use as an emotionally walled off doctor who falls hopelessly in love with a sheep. The concept alone is enough to elicit a "What?" response from anybody but unlike some lesser skits from Allen the comic potential of this idea is actually tapped into. We see Wilder's slow conversion from confusion at the attraction that the Armenian owner of the sheep has for it to being charmed and eventually lustful himself. His slow descent resembles that of most men having an affair with a woman but the punch line of him being discovered with the sheep in a red robe with some strange BDSM contraption strapped to the sheep is terribly funny. Most of the skits after this point are just sort of ‘meh' as they feel the most like a television show with too few jokes and a lot of nothing. The ideas for most of these sketches are funny on paper but in execution there is just not enough that if funny about a Michelangelo Antonioni parody to stretch it out over 15 minutes. Sure, a giant rolling breast with milk squirting out of is an entertaining visual but this does not make up for the dullness of Allen's earlier romance with a medical tester. When Allen latches on to the idea of a cross dresser escaping from a dinner party to dress up in women's clothing and having to hide from his friends by running out into the street he does little with the concept. Today's audiences might be more resistant to his treatment of sexuality and gender politics but his jokes are not only politically incorrect but not very funny. Smartly he drops in a light, well observed final skit to round out the film and it is so likable that it makes you forget how unfunny the previous skits were. Maybe it was the brevity of the film that made this seem acceptable but when a black sperm accidentally finds his way into the penis of the white man attempting to have sexual intercourse with a woman. I doubt that I will remember much of the film in the weeks to come but for now it was a breezy enough 88 minutes to be worthy of a viewing. See more Read all reviews

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)

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