The Eroticist (1972)

What makes The Eroticist such a wickedly watchable oddity is how Lucio Fulci—better known for nightmares—turns his camera on political power and Catholic pageantry and finds a farce lurking inside both. Lando Buzzanca plays Senator Puppis with a nervy, elastic charisma, turning a scandalous compulsion into a satirical engine that keeps colliding with cardinals, psychiatrists, and the kind of ceremonial hypocrisy that begs to be punctured. The vibe is bawdy and irreverent, but also strangely elegant in its staging, with Lionel Stander adding a deliciously sour note of authority as the Church tries to manage sin like a public-relations problem. It’s not for anyone allergic to sex comedy or to jokes aimed squarely at institutions, but if you’re on the fence and want a sharp, unapologetically adult Italian satire that keeps getting bolder the longer it runs, this one earns its reputation.

Lucio Fulci is clearly aiming for a scandalous political-sex farce that pokes at hypocrisy in church and state, using a senator’s compulsive groping as the engine for chaos. The problem is that the “satire” often plays more like a crude, repetitive gag stretched thin, with humor that leans on vulgarity rather than clever escalation. If you’re expecting Fulci’s sharper genre craft or a genuinely biting political comedy, this can feel indecent in a way that’s more exhausting than provocative. That said, if you have a high tolerance for sleazy early-’70s Italian comedy and you’re mainly curious about the cast and the era’s anything-goes tone, there are moments of energy and oddball bite that might still land.