Seven Beauties
Script error: No such module "about". Template:Infobox film/short descriptionScript error: No such module "Infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "[".Script error: No such module "Check for conflicting parameters". Seven Beauties (Template:Langx, "Pasqualino Sevenbeauties") is a 1975 historical black comedy drama Italian film written and directed by Lina Wertmüller and starring Giancarlo Giannini, Fernando Rey, and Shirley Stoler.
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.[1] It was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film.[2]
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
- Giancarlo Giannini as Pasqualino Frafuso, a.k.a. 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 Psychiatrist
- Francesca Marciano as Carolina
- Mario Conti as Totonno "18 Carati", Concettina's pimp
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.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
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".[3]
Reception
Critical response
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.[4] Bettelheim's own views about concentration camps have likewise been critiqued.[5]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 67% based reviews from 21 critics, and an average rating of 8/10.[6] 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.[7]
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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|
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 | Template:Runner-up | ||
| Best Director | Lina Wertmüller | Template:Runner-up | ||
| Best Screenplay | Template:Runner-up | |||
See also
- List of submissions to the 49th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
- List of Italian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
- List of Italian Academy Award winners and nominees
- List of Italian films of 1975
- The Seven Beauties
Notes
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- ↑ Shirley Stoler's character was based on Ilse Koch,Script error: No such module "Unsubst". 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.
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References
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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- ↑ Bettelheim, Bruno. Surviving and Other Essays. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.
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Sources
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External links
- Script error: No such module "If empty". at IMDbTemplate:Edit at WikidataScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Template:Wikidata check
- Seven Beauties at Rotten TomatoesTemplate:Wikidata check
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