Seven Beauties is a masterpiece that holds up as well now as it did 20 years ago. Pasqualino is a character whose life is shaped by a shallow, macho, code of honor. He continually swears to live his life by this code and to force the family to live up to this standard. He is broken hearted when he must abandon his "man of honor" image in order to escape hanging.
Without his standards, miserable as they were, Pasqualino survives by instinct alone. His character contrasts with the people that he meets when he is interred in a concentration camp. Most of the time he is so consumed by a his desire to live that he can't focus on or misunderstands the important things they try to tell him.
Although this sounds like a very dour movie, it is saved by the way Lina Wertmuller constructs the story. It is a non-linear narrative, with a word or phrase triggering a flash back for Pasqualino.
The music is extraordinary. The concentration camp scenes are horrifying (with Wagner opera as the musical theme) and the scenes set in Naples are sunny and beautiful but not overblown. You see the frayed edges of a poor town, although they're bathed in the mediteranean sunshine.
Pasqualino sums it up best when he says, "A rotten comedy, a lousy farce . .. called living." Lina Wertmueller made a wonderful comedy, a masterful farce . . . called Pasqualino Settebellezze.
Without his standards, miserable as they were, Pasqualino survives by instinct alone. His character contrasts with the people that he meets when he is interred in a concentration camp. Most of the time he is so consumed by a his desire to live that he can't focus on or misunderstands the important things they try to tell him.
Although this sounds like a very dour movie, it is saved by the way Lina Wertmuller constructs the story. It is a non-linear narrative, with a word or phrase triggering a flash back for Pasqualino.
The music is extraordinary. The concentration camp scenes are horrifying (with Wagner opera as the musical theme) and the scenes set in Naples are sunny and beautiful but not overblown. You see the frayed edges of a poor town, although they're bathed in the mediteranean sunshine.
Pasqualino sums it up best when he says, "A rotten comedy, a lousy farce . .. called living." Lina Wertmueller made a wonderful comedy, a masterful farce . . . called Pasqualino Settebellezze.