Seven Beauties (1975)

Seven Beauties (Italian: Pasqualino Settebellezze, "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 and 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. It was also nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Film.

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

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.

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".

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. Bettelheim's own views about concentration camps have likewise been critiqued.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 67% based reviews from 21 critics. 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.

Awards and nominations

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

References

Sources

External links

Seven Beauties at IMDb

Seven Beauties at Rotten Tomatoes