For this film, Lina Wertmüller became the first woman ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director .
He kills his sister’s pimp to "restore" family honor, then awkwardly tries to dispose of the body in suitcases.
It seamlessly blends slapstick comedy with the "absolute lowest depths of human cruelty". Pasqualino_Settebellezze_1974_HD_-_Altadefinizi...
The story follows Pasqualino Frafuso (played with "fearless" intensity by Giancarlo Giannini), a petty Neapolitan thug nicknamed "Seven Beauties" for his seven unattractive sisters. Pasqualino is obsessed with a "macho" concept of family honor. His journey is a series of increasingly desperate choices:
If you have ever wondered just how low a person will sink to stay alive, provides a haunting, darkly comedic answer in her 1975 masterpiece, Seven Beauties (originally Pasqualino Settebellezze ). For this film, Lina Wertmüller became the first
Beyond directing, it earned nominations for Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Foreign Language Film . Final Thoughts
Seven Beauties is a "painful, startling reflection" on how easily society accepts cruelty and how the "normal" can do terrible things to survive. It’s a film that demands to be seen, even as it makes you want to look away. The story follows Pasqualino Frafuso (played with "fearless"
The film’s most famous—and "grotesque"—sequence involves Pasqualino deciding to seduce the camp’s "sadistic" and corpulent female commandant (Shirley Stoler) as his only path to survival. Wertmüller uses this disturbing scenario to strip away Pasqualino’s remaining shreds of dignity, transforming his survival from a "triumph" into a cold, cynical "expression of the life force". Why It Matters: Cinematic History