“I’m not that tall,” admitted Laura Antonelli, “I’m a bit plump and I have really short legs: who knows why men like me?” Yet fancy her they did, and for a generation of Italian adolescents (and their fathers) she became the pre-eminent emblem of cinematic eroticism.
During the 1970s, her films broke box-office records, enabling her to work in more serious roles for Luchino Visconti. As her allure began to fade, she was caught up in scandal and, by the end of her life, she asked nothing more than to be forgotten.
Aside from her buxom figure, often barely concealed by a negligée in the sex comedies that made her name, Antonelli’s appeal lay in her sensuality being of the reassuring kind. Visconti called her