Seven Beauties

Seven Beauties
Seven Beauties
	Italian theatrical release poster
Directed by	Lina Wertmüller
Written by	Lina Wertmüller
Produced by	Arrigo Colombo; Lina Wertmüller;
Starring	Giancarlo Giannini; Fernando Rey;
Cinematography	Tonino Delli Colli
Edited by	Franco Fraticelli
Music by	e Enzo Jannacci
Production; company	Medusa Distribuzione
Distributed by	Medusa Distribuzione
Release date	4 May 1975 (France); 20 December 1975 (Italy);
Running time	115 minutes
Country	Italy
Language	Italian

Seven Beauties (Italian: Pasqualino Settebellezze) 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 and is then captured by the Germans and sent to a prison camp, where he does anything to survive. Through flashbacks, we learn about his family of 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, a feat not matched again until 1993, when New Zealand filmmaker Jane Campion was nominated for The Piano. The film received three other Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Foreign Language Film.^[1] It also received one Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Foreign Film.^{[citation needed]}

The production design and costume design were by the director'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 Italy.

To save the family honour, 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 is convicted and sent to prison.

Pasqualino succeeds in getting himself transferred to a psychiatric ward but, desperate to get out, he volunteers for the Italian Army, which is allied with the German army. With an Italian comrade, he eventually deserts the army, but they are captured and sent to a German concentration camp.

In a bid to save his own life, Pasqualino decides to survive the camp by providing sexual favors to the obese and ugly female commandant (Stoler). His plan succeeds, but the commandant puts Pasqualino in charge of a barracks as a kapo. Here he must select six men to be killed to prevent all from being killed. Pasqualino ends up executing his former Army comrade, and he 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.

Cast[]

Giancarlo Giannini as Pasqualino Frafuso aka Settebellezze
Fernando Rey as Pedro (the anarchist prisoner)
Shirley Stoler as The Prison Camp Commandant^{[N 1]}
Elena Fiore as Concettina (a sister)
Piero Di Iorio as Francesco (Pasqualino's comrade)
Enzo Vitale as Don Raffaele
Roberto Herlitzka as Socialist
Lucio Amelio as Lawyer
Ermelinda De Felice as Pasqualino's Mother
Bianca D'Origlia as The Psychiatrist
Francesca Marciano as Carolina
Mario Conti as Totonno "18 Carati" (Concettina's pimp)

Production[]

Casting[]

Giancarlo 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.^{[citation needed]}

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".^[2]

Critical response[]

The subject of the film 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 impression of the experience of concentration camp survivors.^[3] Bettelheim's own views about concentration camps have likewise been critiqued.^[4]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 75% based reviews from 16 critics.^[5] 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.^[6]

Awards and nominations[]

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result
1977	Academy Awards	Best Director	Lina Wertmüller	Nominated^{[N 2]}
		Best Actor in a Leading Role	Giancarlo Giannini	Nominated
		Best Writing (Original Screenplay)	Lina Wertmüller	Nominated
		Best Foreign Language Film		Nominated
	Directors Guild of America Award	Outstanding Directorial Achievement	Lina Wertmüller	Nominated
	Golden Globe Award	Best Foreign Film		Nominated
	New York Film Critics Circle Award	Best Film		Nominated
		Best Director	Lina Wertmüller	Nominated
		Best Actor	Giancarlo Giannini	Nominated
		Best Screenplay	Lina Wertmüller	Nominated

References[]

Notes

^ Shirley Stoler's character was based on Ilse Koch,^{[citation needed]} 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.
^ This was the first nomination of a woman for Best Director in the history of the Academy Awards.

Citations

^ "The 49th Academy Awards (1977) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2012-03-25.
^ Astle, Richard (1977). "Seven Beauties Survival, Lina-style". Jump Cut. pp. 22–23. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
^ Bettelheim, Bruno. Surviving and Other Essays. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.
^ Biale, David (1 October 1979). "Surviving and Other Essays, by Bruno Bettelheim". commentarymagazine.com. Commentary Magazine. Retrieved 5 June 2018.
^ "Pasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
^ "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.

External links[]

[2] Shirley Stoler's character was based on Ilse Koch,^{[citation needed]} 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.

[8] This was the first nomination of a woman for Best Director in the history of the Academy Awards.

[Oscars1977-1] "The 49th Academy Awards (1977) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2012-03-25.

[jumpcut-3] Astle, Richard (1977). "Seven Beauties Survival, Lina-style". Jump Cut. pp. 22–23. Retrieved 9 March 2012.

[4] Bettelheim, Bruno. Surviving and Other Essays. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.

[5] Biale, David (1 October 1979). "Surviving and Other Essays, by Bruno Bettelheim". commentarymagazine.com. Commentary Magazine. Retrieved 5 June 2018.

[tomatoes-6] "Pasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 1 April 2020.

[7] "Cannes Classics 2019". Festival de Cannes. 26 April 2019. Retrieved 26 April 2019.

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