Barbie Latza Nadeau

Italy is buzzing about a cunning new documentary, Videocracy, which got rave reviews at the Venice Film Festival last week and is playing on 70 cinema screens around the country. The film, by Erik Gandini, traces the evolution of Italian television, which has the flavor of a peep show, with flaccid male hosts surrounded by wiggly young half-dressed TV starlets. The movie shows how this particular brand of soft-porn broadcasting was the brainchild of Silvio Berlusconi, who launched the country’s first private channels in the 1970s, featuring programs such as the quiz show where curiously sexy "housewives" removed a piece of clothing each time a contestant answered correctly. Now that media mogul Berlusconi also controls public broadcasting as head of state, neither public nor private TV channels in Italy will show the hilarious, racy movie trailer or allow advertising for the film. But it is well worth seeking out to truly understand why Italian television is so titillating.