In Let's Hope It's a Girl, the black humor that in the past was largely the province of male comics (Sordi, Gassman, et al) emerges from extraordinary performances by unlikely comediennes Liv Ullmann and Catherine Deneuve. The result is one of Monicelli's most appealing and successful comedies in years. Elena (Ullmann) is the happy head of an all-woman household on a Tuscany farm and the estranged wife of the eccentric Count Leopold (Philippe Noiret). Her sister Claudia (Deneuve) is a glamorous actress whose daughter is being raised on the farm along with Elena's two girls, one of whom is comically paired off with a nerdish ethno-musicologist who has made a niche for himself recording songs from the lips of dying peasants. Nothing is sacred here, least of all men, so when Noiret is killed off halfway through the story we don't mind much; the rest of the film is devoted to the chaos (emotional and financial) he leaves in his wake. Monicelli cleverly guides us, along with Elena and her women, to the inevitable conclusion best expressed in the film's title. Show-stopping performances by Bernard Blier as a senile uncle, and by the comic actress Athina Cenci as Elena's maid, highlight a fine supporting team.