Pasqualino Settebellezze (1975)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Lina Wertmüller

Writer:

Lina Wertmüller (writer)

Release Date:

21 January 1976 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | War

Plot:

Pasqualino Settebellezze è un giovane malavitoso napoletano che decide di commettere un crimine per farsi un nome in quel mondo...

Plot Keywords:

Russia | Murder | Italy | Pimp | WWII In Italy

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 2 nominations

Cast

Giancarlo Giannini	...	Pasqualino Frafuso
Fernando Rey	...	Pedro the Anarchist Prisoner
Shirley Stoler	...	Commandant
Elena Fiore	...	Concettina, a Sister
Piero Di Iorio	...	Francesco His Friend
Enzo Vitale	...	Don Raffaele
Roberto Herlitzka	...	Socialist
Lucio Amelio	...	Lawyer
Ermelinda De Felice	...	His Mother
Bianca D'Origlia
Francesca Marciano	...	Carolina (as Francesca Marciani)
Mario Conti	...	Totonno Concettina's Pimp, His Victim
Barbara Valmorin
Emilio Salvatori
Aristide Caporale		(as Aristide Caporali)

Also Known As:

Seven Beauties (International: English title) (USA)
Pasqualino: Seven Beauties (informal literal English title)

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian | German

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:18 | Argentina:18 | Chile:18 | Finland:K-18 | USA:R | Hong Kong:III | West Germany:18 (nf) | Australia:MA

Filming Locations:

Naples, Campania, Italy

Company:

Medusa Produzione

Trivia:

With this film, Lina Wertmüller became the first woman ever nominated for an Academy Award as Best Director.

Quotes:

Pasqualino Frafuso: You'll never take Pasqualino Seven-Beauties! Never will you be able to take him alive!
Policeman: [seizing him] Stop bragging.
Pasqualino Frafuso: So I'm wrong.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Fifth Element (1997)

Captivating parable about the evils of Nazism

Lina Wertmuller had a brief moment in the spotlight back in the mid-seventies, mostly due to the impact of three of her films: "Love and Anarchy," "Swept Away," and "Seven Beauties." Although her career took a nose-dive shortly thereafter, "Seven Beauties" still stands as her best film, and also one of the best films of its era.

Giancarlo Giannini gives a compelling and hilarious performance as Pasqualino Settebellezze, an Italian hood who is sent to prison after killing his sister's lover. He fakes insanity, gets sent to an institution, escapes by joining the military, deserts, gets caught, and is put in a concentration camp. There, he seduces his grotesque female camp commander in order to survive. Giannini makes his character wholly believable, and his presence on-screen (in nearly every scene) keeps the story going from one plot twist to the next. His character has a bumbling, comic presence to him, but also a certain amount of craft and sophistication.

Wertmuller creates a story that works both as slapstick and anti-war drama. Her direction is tight and controlled, and she doesn't flinch away from depicting the brutalities of Nazism. Parts of the film may seem like forerunners of the "gross-out" gags that have populated cinema in recent years, but these moments are actually used to show how the Nazis degraded ordinary innocents and demoralized the world around them. The most interesting aspect of the story is the way Wertmuller compares Hitler's tactics to those of the underground mafia; the Nazis, in the end, come off as hypocritical for persecuting Pasqualino for his crimes. Pasqualino may be a slovenly thug, but placed next to even the lowest-ranking of Hitler's cronies, he's a knight in shining armor.