In a small town in 1950s Italy, a girl named Lola (Anna Ammirati, who director Tinto Brass met when he crashed his car into her as she was on her bicycle; she told him as a joke that if she wasn’t his next leading lady, she would sue him) rules the libido of every boy and man in town, riding her bike with her rear showing and acting as inappropriate as possible. She may be a virgin, but she doesn’t want to be. Her fiance Masetto (Max Parodi), however, is a traditional Italian man who wants to take a pure woman on his wedding night.

Her mother, Zaïra (Serena Grandi), has married Andre (Patrick Mower), a man who has raised Lola as her stepfather, yet she takes every opportunity to try to seduce him. That’s how Lola is with almost everyone, pushing men to their limits and then shocked when they want to be inside her. As for Masetto, he blows up and screams at her just about any time he’s angry, then goes and makes love to sex workers. He has different rules than his bride but she’s unwilling to embrace the past and looks to the future of how women will be treated in Italy.

There’s a great essay that comes with the Cult Epics 4K, “A Committed Brat: The Career of Anna Ammirati” by Eugenio Ercolani and Domenico Monetti. It explains who Ammirati was at the time and the actress she grew to be. I love that she says that she is the opposite of the “bionic blondes” at the time this movie was made; she looks real, feels real and even the song that she sings on the film’s soundtrack, “Mona Monella,” has an edge that you would not expect from someone who is trying with this film to be a sex symbol.

Along with a strong Pino Donaggio score, this soundtrack features plenty of era-appropriate songs, such as Carla Boni’s “Mambo Italiano,” Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood” and Curtis King Jr.’s “Let’s Twist Again,” a song that plays on a sweaty night with our couple and three American soldiers all interacting in a small bar.

Cult Epics is doing amazing things with these Tinto Brass releases. They’re like my Criterion collection, as they release the movies that I truly care about. The 4K UHD release of this movie has new audio commentary by Eugenio Ercolani and Nathaniel Thompson, trailers, an interview with Tinto Brass, a photo gallery, a double-sided sleeve with the original Italian art, a 20-page illustrated booklet with liner notes by Eugenio Ercolani and Domenico Monetti, a slipcase and lobby cards. You can get this from MVD.