Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmuller directs the black comedy Pasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties). During WWII, Pasqualino Frafuso (Giancarlo Giannini) ends up lost in a dense forest along with fellow army deserter Francesco (Piero De Orio). After they witness a mass execution by German soldiers, Francesco admits his moral opposition to the Nazis and Pasqualino reveals his criminal past in a series of flashbacks. Back in Naples, he was known as "Pasqualino Seven Beauties," a petty thief who
lived off the profits of his seven sisters while claiming to protect their honor at any cost. When Totonno (Mario Conti) pimps out his sister Concettina (Elena Fiore), Pasqualino kills him, chops up his body, and mails each piece across the country. He is then arrested and sent to a mental institution, where he commits sexual assault against another patient. Kicked out of the asylum, he is sent to fight in the army. The Germans capture him and he gets sent to a concentration camp. He then plots to make his escape by demoralizing himself in an attempt to seduce a German officer (Shirley Stoler). Seven Beauties was nominated for four Academy Awards in 1977, including Best Foreign Film. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
Nominated for five Oscars, "Seven Beauties" remains a singular example of women's cinema grappling with the tattered shreds of war to get at otherwise unspoken truths.
Lina Wertmuller's audacious art-house hit is at once ruthless, sadistic and cynical -- it's also very funny, using its black comedy trappings to unearth laughs where none should exist.
With final words that are both exhilarating and sad, and [a]...message that maligns wars of all types...Wertmüller has crafted a political protest out of the tenets of tragedy
Lina Wertmuller became the first woman ever to be nominated for Best Director for this powerful, if controversial Itakian film, nominated for the foreign language Oscar.
What would you be willing to do to ensure your survival? Would you sacrifice your honor, your body, your soul? Would you murder? Is moral ambiguity permissable during times of war? The opening film footage of Hitler, Mussoulini, the Russian fronteir, and bombings juxtaposed against the narration of a litany of 'Oh
Yeahs' provides a context for these questions. If you have prostiuted and murdered in order to live, is yours a life worth living? A brilliant and damning critique!
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