In the “Seduction of Mimi,” a man is attracted to Communism partly because it allows him to have an affair with a sexy communist.
She didn’t win then, but the Academy acknowledged the milestone in awarding her a lifetime achievement more than four decades later, in 2019.įilm critic Roger Ebert gave “Swept Away” his top rating, saying despite the movie’s clash between a wealthy capitalist and her Marxist employee it “persists in being about a man and a woman.” Other critics were uncomfortable with its violence against women, with Anthony Kaufman calling it “possibly the most outrageously misogynist film ever made by a woman.” The film won the 1975 National Board of Review award for top foreign film. Other box-office success included “Love and Anarchy” (1973), “Swept Away” (1974) and “Seven Beauties” (1976), which earned her one Oscar nomination for directing, one for best original screenplay and another for her leading man, Giancarlo Giannini. The New Yorker called it “a wonderfully funny sexual farce” and Time magazine named it one of the year’s 10 best films.
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Wertmueller’s series of hits began with the “Seduction of Mimi” (1972), whose title was abbreviated from “Mimi the Metal Worker Wounded in his Honor” - Wertmueller told the AP that long titles amused her. It was favorably received but the director herself criticized it as being “too rarefied,” too difficult for people to understand. That same year, with Fellini’s encouragement, Wertmueller went to Sicily to make “The Lizards,” her first feature film. “It’s illuminating to be close to him, because you are close to a character who’s so profoundly nonconformist, who runs with himself like a child with a kite,” she said. In 1963, Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, the husband of a schoolfriend, introduced Wertmueller to Federico Fellini, who asked her to be his assistant on “8½.” Wertmueller later said Fellini proved to be her greatest influence. After graduating from Rome’s Theatre Academy, she toured Europe with Maria Signorelli’s puppet troupe. Apparently rejecting her parents’ wishes to study law, Wertmueller instead went to drama school where she acted, wrote and directed plays. She was born Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmueller von Elgg Spanol von Braueichjob in Rome to an aristocratic Swiss family. In an interview with The Associated Press, she admitted that she owned hundreds of her trademark white-rimmed glasses. “I refuse to make films without social themes,” said the woman once dubbed “five feet of film controversy.”įive feet tall with dramatic eye makeup, colorful hair and rings on all her fingers, Wertmueller’s extravagant appearance was an integral part of her persona. Wertmueller, who also wrote the scripts for her films, described them as Marxist comedies. Political, controversial and often erotic, her films were filled with social commentary and satirical anti-establishment messages. Wertmueller, who won a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2019, died overnight in Rome surrounded by her family, the LaPresse news agency reported, quoting her relatives.Ĭulture Minister Dario Franceschini paid tribute to Wertmueller Thursday, saying her “class and unmistakable style” had left its mark on Italian and world cinema. ROME (AP) - Italy’s provocative filmmaker Lina Wertmueller, whose potent mix of sex and politics in “Swept Away” and “Seven Beauties” made her the first woman nominated for an Academy Award for directing and a cult figure on the New York film scene, has died, the Culture Ministry said.
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