EVERYTHING YOU ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT SEX BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK

US, 1972, 87 minutes, Colour.
Woody Allen, John Carradine, Lou Jacobi, Gene Wilder, Louise Lasser, Anthony Quayle, Lynn Redgrave, Burt Reynolds.
Directed by Woody Allen.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex - but were afraid to ask. What are the legitimate subjects for jokes? Everything human? Killing? - yes. Pride? - yes. But the bounds of taste are important. Religion? - yes. Human sexuality and functions? - it seems to depend where the jokes are told. Here they are on the screen, six revue sketches to reply to some questions in Dr. Reuben's book. The film is funny. Woody Allen who wrote, directed and acted in the film is a clever comic and parody maker. If you disagree about the topics for jokes, don't go. otherwise, depending on audience atmosphere, you can laugh at what it partly is to be human.

1. Doctor Reuben's book was an information book about sexuality - does this have any place on a public screen?

2. The jokes in this film are about sexuality - do jokes about sexuality have a legitimate place on the public screen? Should they be excluded entirely? Should it be a matter of tastes?

3. The film was not really an answer to the questions Doctor Reuben raises, rather it was a series of sketches about sex. Is this a legitimate subject for comedy?

4. The film depended on Woody Allen's style of humour. Was it successful in this film? Why? How?

5. Did Woody Allen in his writing and directing of the screenplay take any moral stance? Could you draw from the film what Woody Allen considers right and wrong in matters of sexuality? E.g. the episodes on the sheep and the comment on human love and sexuality, even by irony? of the science-fiction episode and the implicit criticism of the excesses of experimentation?

6. The film was also a parody of many film styles. How successful was this? Did it add to the enjoyment of the film?

7. The medieval sketch. What was the point of this sketch? Of the humour? Did it have satirical or humorous value?

8. The Italian Love Story. Its parody of Antonioni's style in film? The comment on the pretensions of Italian love stories?

9. The episode with the sheep. The ordinariness of the doctor? His falling in love with the sheep? Was this tastelessness? Was it humorous? Did it comment on human relationships and falling in love? How tasteful was the visual presentation of the story? How sad and pathetic was the doctor's obsession, especially when working as a waiter in the bar? Did this offer moral comment on the episode?

10. "What's my Perversion". How humorous was this segment? What comment did it make on TV program styles? What comment did it make on the American way of life? Did it imply that the American public is prurient in what it watches on television?

11. The story of Sam. How much humour and pathos was there in this story of Sam? How much incidental satire on the middle class American way of life? Satire on transvestitism?

12. The science-fiction episode. How clever was this? How crude? How much did it depend on the styles of science-fiction film - mad doctors, invasions from other planets? How mad was the doctor? What comment did this make on the excesses of sexual experimentation? Did it imply that madness was the result of such experimentation and investigation? How humorous was the episode of the chase by the beast?

13. What was the point of the final episode? How humorous a treatment was it of human biological functions? Wit? Parody style?

14 After thinking about particular episodes, do you think this a good comedy?