Outlaws of Love

Ugo Tognazzi stars in this anthology docu-drama about the Catholic Church's iron-clad hold on the sanctity of marriage and the modern omnipresence of divorce, told across five episodes.

Following A Man for Burning, the Taviani brothers made one final feature with collaborator Valentino Orsini, this film formally sophisticated comic docu-drama, which portrays the difficulties of Italian life circa 1963 due to the absence of a divorce law (not established until 1970). Five scenarios with different actors portray realistic situations where divorce is clearly warranted but, because marriage was strictly in the purview of the Catholic Church at that time, which strictly forbade divorce, these people are shown to suffer the consequences in their daily lives.