Seven Beauties
Italian theatrical release poster
Directed byLina Wertmüller
Written byLina Wertmüller
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyTonino Delli Colli
Edited byFranco Fraticelli
Music byNando de Luca e Enzo Jannacci
Production
company
Medusa Distribuzione
Distributed byMedusa Distribuzione
Release dates
  • 4 May 1975 (1975-05-04) (France)
  • 20 December 1975 (1975-12-20) (Italy)
Running time
115 minutes
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian
Box office$1.4 million[1]

Seven Beauties (Italian: Pasqualino Settebellezze, "Pasqualino Sevenbeauties") is a 1975 Italian language film written and directed by Lina Wertmüller and starring Giancarlo Giannini, Fernando Rey, and Shirley Stoler.

Written by Wertmüller, the film is about an Italian everyman who deserts the army during World War II, is captured by the Germans and sent to a prison camp, where he does anything he can to survive. Through flashbacks, we learn about his seven unattractive sisters, his accidental murder of one sister's lover, his imprisonment in an insane asylum—where he rapes a patient—and his volunteering to be a soldier to escape confinement.

For her work on the film, Wertmüller became the first woman nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. The film received three other Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Foreign Language Film.[2] It also received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Foreign Film.[3]

The production design and costume design are by Wertmüller's husband, Enrico Job.

Plot

The picaresque story follows its protagonist, Pasqualino (Giannini), a dandy and small-time hood in Naples in Fascist and World War II-era Italy.

To defend his family's honor, Pasqualino kills a pimp who had turned his sister into a prostitute. To dispose of the victim's body, he dismembers it and places the parts in suitcases. Caught by the police, he confesses to the murder, but successfully pleads insanity and is sentenced to 12 years in a psychiatric ward. Desperate to get out, he volunteers for the Italian Army. With an Italian comrade, he eventually deserts the army, but they are captured and sent to a German concentration camp.

Pasqualino attempts to survive the camp by providing sexual favors to the female commandant (Stoler). His plan succeeds, but the commandant puts Pasqualino in charge of his barracks as a kapo. He is told he must select six men from his barracks to be killed to prevent all from being killed. Pasqualino ends up executing his former Army comrade, and is responsible for the death of another fellow prisoner, a Spanish anarchist.

At the war's end, upon his return to Naples, Pasqualino discovers that his seven sisters, his fiancée, and even his mother have all survived by becoming prostitutes. Unfazed, he insists on marrying his fiancée as soon as possible.

Cast

Production

Casting

Giannini starred in three other films Wertmüller made during this period: The Seduction of Mimi (1972), Love and Anarchy (1973), and Swept Away (1974).

Filming locations

Seven Beauties was filmed on location in Naples, Campania, Italy.

Opening sequence

In the opening sequence of Seven Beauties, spoken over World War II archival footage showing the destruction of cities and men, Wertmüller defines the object of her critique—a "particular petty bourgeois social type".[4]

Reception

Critical response

The film's subject is survival. At the time of its release, it was controversial for its graphic depiction of Nazi concentration camps. In his 1976 essay "Surviving", Bruno Bettelheim, while admiring the film's artistry, severely criticized its depiction of the experience of concentration camp survivors.[5] Bettelheim's own views about concentration camps have likewise been critiqued.[6]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 65% based reviews from 20 critics, and an average rating of 8/10.[7] In April 2019, a restored version of the film was selected to be shown in the Cannes Classics section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.[8]

Awards and nominations

Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result
1977
 Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film Nominated
Best Director Lina Wertmüller Nominated[N 2]
Best Actor Giancarlo Giannini Nominated
Best Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen Lina Wertmüller Nominated
Boston Society of Film Critics Awards Best Rediscoveries Won
Directors Guild of America Awards Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures Lina Wertmüller Nominated
Golden Globe Awards Best Foreign Film Nominated
New York Film Critics Circle Awards Best Film Runner-up
Best Director Lina Wertmüller Runner-up
Best Screenplay Runner-up

See also

References

Notes
  1. ↑ Shirley Stoler's character was based on Ilse Koch, notoriously known as "the Bitch of Buchenwald". The wife of the camp's commandant Karl Otto Koch, she reportedly took sadistic pleasure in torturing inmates, and was accused of having lampshades made out of their skin, although these charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
  2. ↑ This was the first nomination of a woman for Best Director in the history of the Academy Awards.
Citations
  1. ↑ Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 297. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada
  2. ↑ "The 49th Academy Awards (1977) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2012-03-25.
  3. ↑ "Best Foreign Language Film". Golden Globes. Archived from the original on 15 December 2009.
  4. ↑ Astle, Richard (1977). "Seven Beauties Survival, Lina-style". Jump Cut. pp. 22–23. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  5. ↑ Bettelheim, Bruno. Surviving and Other Essays. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.
  6. ↑ Biale, David (1 October 1979). "Surviving and Other Essays, by Bruno Bettelheim". commentarymagazine.com. Commentary Magazine. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
  7. ↑ "Pasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  8. ↑ "Cannes Classics 2019". Festival de Cannes. 26 April 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2019.
Bibliography
  • Bondanella, Peter (2009). History of Italian Cinema. New York: Continuum. ISBN 978-0826417855.
  • Bullaro, Grace Russo (2007). Man in Disorder: The Cinema of Lina Wertmüller in the 1970s. Troubador Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1905886395.
  • Wertmüller, Lina (1978). The Screenplays of Lina Wertmuller. New York: Werner Books. ISBN 978-0446872621.
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