After graduating from school, Wertmüller played a
variety of roles in the movie business. From acting to writing plays to
directing, she worked with a number of influential artists during those years
including Federico Fellini, Marcello Mastroianni and her future muse, Giancarlo
Giannini. In 1962, she landed a career-changing job as an assistant director on
Fellini’s 8½ and the following year, made her directorial debut with The
Lizards (I basilischi). The film was shot along the border of the southern
Italian regions of Basilicata and Puglia, and to this day, is very much revered
by the people of the south. The film speaks to the profound poverty of
post-war Italy. With her trademark “whistling” music and her simple, yet
powerful scenes, I basilischi was Wertmüller’s first in many social statements
about the perils of man, the overpopulation and the politics that wreak havoc
on the world and contribute to the suffering of the poor.
Her great successes came the following decade when she
teamed up with actor Giancarlo Giannini to churn out four consecutive
spectacular and complex masterpieces, all of which received international
acclaim: The Seduction of Mimi in 1972, Love and Anarchy in 1973, Swept Away in
1974” and Seven Beauties in 1975. In
each of these films, Giancarlo Giannini plays a despicable character but bitter
for good reason. There are numerous opposing forces in her films. For example, the North vs
the South, socialism vs fascism and humility opposed to indifference. The
opposition in her films is harsh. Her characters and their situations are black
and white. There is no indecision.

The most successful of these films is the dark comedy, Seven
Beauties. The film earned four Academy Award nominations for Best Foreign
Language Film, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role and a writing
category that no longer exists- Writing-(Screenplay Written Directly for the
Screen--based on factual material or on story material not previously published
or produced). Although the film was made in 1975, it received the Oscar
nomination in 1976, also the year of Rocky and A Star is Born. Giancarlo
Giannini gave a passionate, harrowing performance and deserved his Best Actor
nomination. Set in Naples during World War II, Seven Beauties is the story of
Pasqualino, a brother always defending the honor of his family. When a pimp
forces his sister to work as a prostitute, refusing to marry her and then
verbally insulting the family, Pasqualino commits murder and then admits to the
murder, saying he did it to protect the honor and name of his family. His
lawyer convinces him to plead insanity for a lesser sentence. Desperate to get
out of the insane asylum, he volunteers to join the military. What follows is a
heart-wrenching account from the trenches of war. As bleak as the story is,
Wertmüller and Giannini manage to fit in some serious comedy relief. The film
is an artistic testament to the cruelty of mankind and the moral struggle
between good and evil. Click here to stream Seven Beauties on Amazon.
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A scene from Love and Anarchy |
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