WHAT? (1972)

Roman Polanski described it as “the ribald adventures of an innocent girl.” Critics called it “an amoral, depraved disaster.” More than four decades after its controversial release, it remains the most butchered, debated and least-seen film of the Oscar-winning director’s entire career. The succulent Sydne Rome stars as an oft-naked American girl lost inside a Mediterranean villa inhabited by priests, pianists, perverts and a syphilitic pimp (a deliciously bizarre performance by Marcello Mastroianni) while indulging in madcap acts of gang rape, sodomy and ping-pong. Hugh Griffith (TOM JONES), Romolo Valli (BOCCACCIO '70) and Polanski himself co-star in this surreal and sexy comedy, now finally restored to its original running time from a vault print reportedly stolen from the wine cellar of producer Carlo Ponti!