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 by Lina Wertmüller starring Giancarlo Giannini in the main role. Fernando Rey and Shirley 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 the Italian Army somewhere in Germany. 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 the barracks 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 Italian Anarchist.) Earlier in the film Pasqualino kills the pimp who turned his sister into a prostitute to save the family honor. Pasqualino later prostitutes himself and upon his return to Naples 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 commandant Karl 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

*