The story of Bawdy Tales and its irreverent premise
Bawdy Tales arrives as a peculiar artifact of 1970s European cinema—a film that takes the picaresque tradition and cranks the vulgarity dial past eleven. Sergio Citti's 97-minute comedy centers on two 19th-century rogues who've apparently decided that the best way to pass time is by one-upping each other with increasingly profane and sacrilegious anecdotes. The setup is deceptively simple: these two con men sit and spin yarns about life's excesses, each tale more outrageous than the last, each designed to shock, scandalize, and—if you're in the right (or wrong) mood—make you laugh at transgressions that polite society would rather not acknowledge. It's a film built on the premise that storytelling itself can be a competitive sport, and that nothing—not religion, not morality, not basic decency—is off-limits for a good laugh.
Behind the making of Bawdy Tales and its cast
Bawdy Tales emerged from the Italian and French film industries at a moment when European cinema was testing boundaries in ways that would've been unthinkable a decade earlier. Sergio Citti, who'd worked in the orbit of Pier Paolo Pasolini (a director who himself wasn't afraid of controversy), brought a particular sensibility to the material—one that treats vulgarity not as a bug but as a feature, almost a philosophical stance. The film features Ninetto Davoli and Franco Citti in the lead roles, supported by Nicoletta Machiavelli, Gianni Rizzo, Silvano Gatti, Enzo Petriglia, and Sebastiano Soldati. Davoli, in particular, carried credibility from his work with Pasolini, lending a certain artistic legitimacy to what might otherwise have been dismissed as mere smut. The production was a co-effort between France and Italy—a partnership that reflects the era's pan-European appetite for provocative, low-budget provocations. Box office figures for the film are scant in most archives, which tells you something about its commercial reach (or lack thereof). That said, Movie OTT and similar streaming aggregators have made it possible for curious viewers to track down films like this without hunting through specialty video shops.
What makes Bawdy Tales stand out in 1970s comedy
What's striking about Bawdy Tales—and what separates it from mere shock-value filmmaking—is that it commits fully to its own logic. The film doesn't wink at the audience or apologize for its outrageousness. Instead, it doubles down, treating each crude anecdote with the seriousness of a morality play, which is precisely what makes it darkly funny. The performances, particularly Davoli's, carry a kind of deadpan intensity that suggests these rogues genuinely believe their own nonsense. There's a particular kind of 1970s European sensibility at work here—one that saw cinema as a place where taboos could be shattered, where the sacred could be mocked, where the body and its functions could be treated as comedy rather than shame. The film won't land for everyone. An IMDb rating of 4.8/10 suggests that plenty of viewers found it either tedious, offensive, or both. But that low score doesn't necessarily indicate failure—sometimes a film's refusal to compromise is exactly what makes it memorable, even if "memorable" means "I can't believe they did that." Hard to say if Bawdy Tales was ever intended as serious social commentary or pure provocation, but the ambiguity itself is part of its charm, if you can call it that.
Where to stream Bawdy Tales online
If you're curious enough to seek out Bawdy Tales, you'll find it currently available on Prime Video. The streaming landscape has made obscure 1970s European comedies far more accessible than they once were—you don't need to know a video-store clerk or haunt film festivals to discover these oddities anymore. Movie OTT tracks current streaming availability across major platforms, so if you're wondering where a particular title lives, that's the kind of thing we help surface. For Bawdy Tales specifically, check the "Where to Watch" widget at the top of this page for real-time platform updates and links. Streaming services rotate their catalogs constantly, so it's worth confirming availability before settling in for what will undoubtedly be an unusual evening.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Who directed Bawdy Tales?
Sergio Citti, an Italian filmmaker who worked in the provocative European cinema scene of the 1970s, directed the film. Citti was known for his willingness to challenge social and religious norms through cinema.
Q: What year was Bawdy Tales released?
Bawdy Tales premiered in 1973 as a Franco-Italian co-production, placing it squarely in the era of European art-house experimentation and boundary-pushing comedy.
Q: How long is Bawdy Tales?
The film runs 97 minutes, a fairly compact runtime that keeps the parade of crude anecdotes moving at a brisk pace without overstaying its welcome.
Q: Who stars in Bawdy Tales?
Ninetto Davoli and Franco Citti lead the cast, with supporting performances from Nicoletta Machiavelli, Gianni Rizzo, Silvano Gatti, Enzo Petriglia, and Sebastiano Soldati.
Q: Is Bawdy Tales appropriate for family viewing?
Absolutely not. The film is packed with vulgar language, sexual content, and blasphemous material—it's strictly for adult viewers with a high tolerance for crude humor and a taste for transgressive 1970s European cinema.
Final thoughts on Bawdy Tales
Bawdy Tales isn't a film for everyone, and that's part of what makes it interesting. It's a relic of a particular moment in cinema history when European filmmakers could make something this crude, this irreverent, and get it distributed without major studio interference. If you're the sort of viewer who appreciates 1970s provocation, who can laugh at transgression without needing it justified, who doesn't mind a low production budget in service of artistic audacity—then it's worth tracking down. Just don't expect polish, subtlety, or restraint. Come for the rogues, stay for the sheer nerve of it all.
