ABSTRACT
Although intended to comment on the character’s state of innocence and zest for life, this scene constitutes one of the rare appearances of Marcello Mastroianni’s naked legs on the screen. In fact, in his 160 odd screen appearances, Mastroianni’s body is rarely eroticised. This lack of masculine secularisation, particularly in the 1950s when Mastroianni began his film career, is somewhat against the norm. This period in film history is in fact what Steven Cohan has called ‘The Age of the Chest’ in both American films, featuring such stars as William Holden, Marlon Brando, and Charlton Heston, and in Italian popular cinema, particularly the many biblical epics and peplum films (Cohan 1997: 164-200; Dyer 1997: 145-83.
