Seven Beauties
Encyclopedia
Pasqualino Settebellezze (English title Seven Beauties) is a 1975 Italian language
film
written and directed by Lina Wertmüller
and starring Giancarlo Giannini
in the main role. Fernando Rey
and Shirley Stoler
are also featured. The production design and costume design were by the director's late husband, Enrico Job.
(and then dissecting the victim and placing the body in suitcases) who had turned Pasqualino's sister into a prostitute. Convicted and sent to prison, Pasqualino succeeds in being transferred to a psychiatric ward. Desperate to get out, he volunteers for the Italian Army
, but then somewhere in Germany
he deserts with a comrade. They are captured and sent to a concentration camp. There, in a bid to save his own life, Pasqualino decides to gain the sexual favors of the obese and ugly female commandant (Stoler). His plan succeeds, except for the fact that he is then put in charge of the barracks
as a kapo
, and is obliged to select six men to be killed under the threat that if he doesn't do so, they will all be killed. Pasqualino ends up executing the soldier with whom he was captured and being 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 through prostitution.
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.
s. In his 1976 essay "Surviving", Bruno Bettelheim
, while admiring the film's artistry, severely criticizes the impression it makes of the experience of concentration camp survivors.
, notoriously known as "the Bitch of Buchenwald
". The wife of the camp's commandant Karl Otto Koch
, she took sadistic pleasure in torturing
inmates, and was accused of having lampshades made out of their skin, though these charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
Giancarlo Giannini starred in three other films Wertmuller made during this period: Love and Anarchy
, The Seduction of Mimi
and Swept Away
.
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
written and directed by Lina Wertmüller
Lina Wertmüller
Lina Wertmüller is an Italian film writer and director of aristocratic Swiss descent. In 1976, she became the first woman ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing with the film Seven Beauties.-Biography:...
and starring Giancarlo Giannini
Giancarlo Giannini
Giancarlo Giannini is an Italian actor and dubber.Giannini was born La Spezia, Liguria, Italy. He studied at the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica in Rome, and made his film debut in a small part in Fango sulla metropoli in 1965...
in the main role. Fernando Rey
Fernando Rey
Fernando Casado Arambillet , best known as Fernando Rey, was a Spanish film, theatre, and TV actor, who worked in both Europe and the United States...
and Shirley Stoler
Shirley Stoler
Shirley Stoler was an American actress best known for her roles in The Honeymoon Killers and Lina Wertmuller's Seven Beauties.-Career:...
are also featured. The production design and costume design were by the director's late husband, Enrico Job.
Plot
The picaresque story follows its protagonist, Pasqualino (Giannini) who, as a dandy and small-time hood in Naples, to save the family honour, is sent to prison for killing a pimpPimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...
(and then dissecting the victim and placing the body in suitcases) who had turned Pasqualino's sister into a prostitute. Convicted and sent to prison, Pasqualino succeeds in being transferred to a psychiatric ward. Desperate to get out, he volunteers for the Italian Army
Italian Army
The Italian Army is the ground defence force of the Italian Armed Forces. It is all-volunteer force of active-duty personnel, numbering 108,355 in 2010. Its best-known combat vehicles are the Dardo infantry fighting vehicle, the Centauro tank destroyer and the Ariete tank, and among its aircraft...
, but then somewhere in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
he deserts with a comrade. They are captured and sent to a concentration camp. There, in a bid to save his own life, Pasqualino decides to gain the sexual favors of the obese and ugly female commandant (Stoler). His plan succeeds, except for the fact that he is then put in charge of the barracks
Barracks
Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...
as a kapo
Kapo (concentration camp)
A kapo was a prisoner who worked inside German Nazi concentration camps during World War II in any of certain lower administrative positions. The official Nazi word was Funktionshäftling, or "prisoner functionary", but the Nazis commonly referred to them as kapos.- Etymology :The origin of "kapo"...
, and is obliged to select six men to be killed under the threat that if he doesn't do so, they will all be killed. Pasqualino ends up executing the soldier with whom he was captured and being responsible for the death of another fellow prisoner, a Spanish anarchist. At the war's end, upon his return to Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
, Pasqualino discovers that his seven sisters, his fiancée and even his mother have all survived through prostitution.
Awards
The film was nominated for Academy AwardsAcademy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Academy Award for Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
, Best Director
Academy Award for Directing
The Academy Award for Achievement in Directing , usually known as the Best Director Oscar, is one of the Awards of Merit presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to directors working in the motion picture industry...
, Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
and Best Original Screenplay. Wertmuller was the first woman ever nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director.
Criticism
The subject of the film is survival. It was controversial at the time for its graphic depiction of concentration campNazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
s. In his 1976 essay "Surviving", Bruno Bettelheim
Bruno Bettelheim
Bruno Bettelheim was an Austrian-born American child psychologist and writer. He gained an international reputation for his work on Freud, psychoanalysis, and emotionally disturbed children.-Background:...
, while admiring the film's artistry, severely criticizes the impression it makes of the experience of concentration camp survivors.
Trivia
Shirley Stoler's character was based on Ilse KochIlse Koch
Ilse Koch, née Köhler , was the wife of Karl-Otto Koch, commandant of the Nazi concentration camps Buchenwald from 1937 to 1941, and Majdanek from 1941 to 1943...
, notoriously known as "the Bitch of Buchenwald
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald concentration camp was a German Nazi concentration camp established on the Ettersberg near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937, one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps on German soil.Camp prisoners from all over Europe and Russia—Jews, non-Jewish Poles and Slovenes,...
". The wife of the camp's commandant Karl Otto Koch
Karl Otto Koch
Karl-Otto Koch , a Standartenführer in the German Schutzstaffel , was the first commandant of the Nazi concentration camps at Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen, and later also served as a commander at the Majdanek concentration camp.-Early life:Koch was born in Darmstadt, Grand Duchy of Hesse on...
, she took sadistic pleasure in torturing
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...
inmates, and was accused of having lampshades made out of their skin, though these charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.
Giancarlo Giannini starred in three other films Wertmuller made during this period: Love and Anarchy
Love and Anarchy
Love and Anarchy is a 1973 film directed by Lina Wertmüller and starring Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato. The story, set in Fascist Italy before the outbreak of World War II, centers on Giannini's character, an anarchist who stays in a brothel while preparing to kill Benito Mussolini...
, The Seduction of Mimi
The Seduction of Mimi
Mimí metallurgico ferito nell'onore is an Italian language film directed by Lina Wertmüller, starring Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato. It was released in the United States as The Seduction of Mimi, although a literal translation of the title would be "Mimi the metalworker, wounded in honor"...
and Swept Away
Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August
Swept Away is a 1974 Italian film written and directed by Lina Wertmüller...
.