- Seven Beauties
Infobox_Film
name = Seven Beauties
imdb_id = 0075040
writer =Lina Wertmüller
starring =Giancarlo Giannini Fernando Rey Shirley Stoler Elena Fiore Roberto Herlitzka
director =Lina Wertmüller
producer =Arrigo Colombo Lina Wertmüller
music =Enzo Jannacci
cinematography =Tonino Delli Colli
editing =Franco Fraticelli
distributor =Koch-Lorber Films
released =May 4 ,1975
runtime = 115 min
language = Italian
budget ="Pasqualino Settebellezze" (English title "Seven Beauties") is a 1975
Italian language film written and directed byLina Wertmüller starringGiancarlo Giannini in the main role.Fernando Rey andShirley Stoler are also featured. Production Design and costume design by director's husband,Enrico Job .Plot
The
picaresque story follows the life of its hero, Pasqualino, played by (Giancarlo Giannini ) as he and another soldier have deserted theItalian Army somewhere inGermany . They are captured and sent to a concentration camp where Pasqualino tries to seduce the large and unattractive female commandant (Shirley Stoler ) in order to save his own life. The plan succeeds except for the fact that Pasqualino is put in charge of thebarracks and has to select six men to be killed under the threat that they will all be killed if he doesn't do it. Pasqualino ends up shooting his best friend in the head and being responsible for his other friend's death, (an ItalianAnarchist .) Earlier in the film Pasqualino kills the pimp who turned his sister into aprostitute to save the family honor. Pasqualino later prostitutes himself and upon his return toNaples finds that his seven sisters, fiance and even his mother have survived and become prostitutes.Awards
The film was nominated for
Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay. Wertmuller was the first woman ever nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director.Trivia
Shirley Stoler's character was based on
Ilse Koch , notoriously known as the "the Bitch of Buchenwald". The wife of the camp's commandantKarl Otto Koch , she took sadistic pleasure in the torture of inmates, and was suspected of having lampshades made out of the skin of inmates.Giancarlo Giannini stars in three other films Wertmuller made during this period, "
Love and Anarchy ", "The Seduction of Mimi " and "Swept Away". As in the latter film, Gianni here plays a character who is dominated by a woman.The film was controversial at the time for its graphic depiction of concentration camp scenes and its antifeminist stance.
Pasqualino's nickname "Seven Beauties" ("Settebellezze") refers to the fact that he has seven ugly sisters. His last name in the film is Frafuso.
External links
*
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.