Seven Beauties
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"In the film Seven Beauties, directed by Lina Wertmüller, the protagonist saves his life by having an affair with the female commander of a concentration camp, where he has been imprisoned for deserting the Italian Army."--Sholem Stein Opening montage of Seven Beauties showing archival footage of WWII, with voice-over and the song "Quelli che" by Enzo Jannacci: Quelli che dicono se evenzo, seguitemi, se indietreggio, uccidetemi, si fa per dire Those who say follow me if I move forward, but kill me if I retreat
The ones who don't enjoy themselves even when they laugh. |
Related e |
Featured: |
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.
Contents |
Opening montage
The opening montage features historical World War II footage. Superimposed is a lounge style novelty song by Enzo Jannacci entiteld “Quelli che…” (1975). The lyrics of the song, brought in a parlando style, are a series of cynical comments which start with the phrase “quelli che” (English: “for those”). Most of these comments end in an “oh yeah” interjection.
Plot
The picaresque story follows its protagonist, Pasqualino (Giannini), a dandy and small-time hood in Naples in Fascist and World War II Italy.
To save the family honour, 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 is convicted and sent to prison.
Pasqualino succeeds in getting himself transferred to a psychiatric ward but, desperate to get out, he volunteers for the Italian Army, which is allied with the German army. With an Italian comrade, he eventually deserts the army, but they are captured and sent to a German concentration camp.
In a bid to save his own life, Pasqualino decides to survive the camp by providing sexual favors to the obese and ugly female commandant (Stoler). His plan succeeds, but the commandant puts Pasqualino in charge of a barracks as a kapo. Here he must select six men to be killed to prevent all from being killed. Pasqualino ends up executing his former Army comrade, and he 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.
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.
Cast
- Giancarlo Giannini as Pasqualino Frafuso aka 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 The Psychiatrist
- Francesca Marciano as Carolina
- Mario Conti as Totonno "18 Carati" (Concettina's pimp)
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" ("Settebelleze") refers to the fact that he has seven ugly sisters. His last name in the film is Frafuso.
See also