Pasqualino

Original title: Pasqualino Settebellezze

1975
16
1h 56m

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

6.8K

YOUR RATING

We take a look back at cinematic history and celebrate the pioneering women directors and their groundbreaking work. Here's a list of the 111 films featured in our tribute video. https://imdb.to/WomenDirectorsPlaylist

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The defense of honor, a strong value in Neapolitan society, and its effects on the life of everyman Pasquale Frafuso.The defense of honor, a strong value in Neapolitan society, and its effects on the life of everyman Pasquale Frafuso.The defense of honor, a strong value in Neapolitan society, and its effects on the life of everyman Pasquale Frafuso.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.7/10

6.8K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 4 Oscars
- 2 wins & 9 nominations total

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Featured reviews

8jamesrupert2014

How low will you go to survive?

After deserting from the Italian Army, small-time Neapolitan hood Pasqualino 'Seven Beauties' Frafuso is captured by the Germans and sent to a harsh prison camp run by a sadistic female commandant (Shirley Stoler) where he discovers just how low he'll sink to stay alive. The film is an intriguing blend of comedy and brutality as Pasqualino relives (through flashbacks) the events that brought him to the camp (including the murder of his homely sister's pimp and his awkward attempts to dispose of the body). Survival is the underlying theme, as Pasqualino, a small, unprepossessing man, postures and struts to maintain his place in the Naples underworld, then has to find food and shelter when on the run from the Germans (the scene of him chattering to a bemused elderly German woman while stuffing his face on stolen food is priceless), and finally decides that seducing the corpulent commandant is the only way to survive the camp. Throughout the film, the imagery is outstanding, sometimes colourful and bizarre (but not as grotesque as Fellini), other times monochrome and almost painful to look at. The film will not be to everyone's taste but I very much enjoyed it.

9Oblomov_81

Captivating parable about the evils of Nazism

Lina Wertmuller had a brief moment in the spotlight back in the mid-seventies, mostly due to the impact of three of her films: "Love and Anarchy," "Swept Away," and "Seven Beauties." Although her career took a nose-dive shortly thereafter, "Seven Beauties" still stands as her best film, and also one of the best films of its era.

Giancarlo Giannini gives a compelling and hilarious performance as Pasqualino Settebellezze, an Italian hood who is sent to prison after killing his sister's lover. He fakes insanity, gets sent to an institution, escapes by joining the military, deserts, gets caught, and is put in a concentration camp. There, he seduces his grotesque female camp commander in order to survive. Giannini makes his character wholly believable, and his presence on-screen (in nearly every scene) keeps the story going from one plot twist to the next. His character has a bumbling, comic presence to him, but also a certain amount of craft and sophistication.

Wertmuller creates a story that works both as slapstick and anti-war drama. Her direction is tight and controlled, and she doesn't flinch away from depicting the brutalities of Nazism. Parts of the film may seem like forerunners of the "gross-out" gags that have populated cinema in recent years, but these moments are actually used to show how the Nazis degraded ordinary innocents and demoralized the world around them. The most interesting aspect of the story is the way Wertmuller compares Hitler's tactics to those of the underground mafia; the Nazis, in the end, come off as hypocritical for persecuting Pasqualino for his crimes.

10tm-22

It's one matter not being innocent -- it's another being a whore

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.

8larcher-2

A wild, bleak extravaganza

A wild, bleak extravaganza in which our Everyman learns to shed everything--even the honor that was the one thing he had--for survival. There's a near-perfect use of images--for example, the use of bright flowered dresses to signify that yet another sister has become a whore--and an equally perfect use of sound, silence, and music. A very, very dark comedy that is largely summed up in the opening sequence, a long litany of those who are to blame. I quote only a few lines: "the ones who don't enjoy themselves even when they laugh. . . the ones who should have been shot in the cradle (pow!). . . the ones who have never had a fatal accident.. . the ones who have had one. . ."

Avoid the dubbed version; it's terrible.

10Holly_Martens

One for the ages.

I would challenge any serious film lover to view this movie and not have a very strong opinion of it. My own opinion is that it's one of the best films ever made, period. The story is harrowing, the score is so haunting you'll never forget it, and you'll think about scenes from it years later. Once you viewed it, most other domestic stuff won't even make it into the ballpark with it, much less compare with it. It's a masterpiece, plain and simple. This is real film making.

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Trivia
With this film, Lina Wertmüller became the first woman ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director. The only other women to be so nominated are Jane Campion for La Leçon de piano (1993) and The Power of the Dog (2021), Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation (2003), Kathryn Bigelow for Démineurs (2008), Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird (2017), Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman (2020), Chloé Zhao for Nomadland (2020), Justine Triet for Anatomie d'une chute (2023) and Coralie Fargeat for The Substance (2024). Bigelow won first, followed 11 years later by Zhao, while Campion finally won hers the year after.

Goofs
Seven minutes in, when Pasqualino sees civilians being cut down with machine-gun fire, there is no blood spray when they're shot and subsequently no blood on any of the corpses.

Quotes
Narrator: The ones who don't enjoy themselves, even when they laugh. Oh yeah. The ones who worship the corporate image, not knowing that they work for someone else. Oh yeah. The ones who should have been shot in the cradle... Pow! Oh yeah. The ones who say 'Follow me to success, but kill me if I fail... so to speak.' Oh yeah. The ones who say we Italians are the greatest he-men on earth. Oh yeah. The ones who are noble Romans, the ones who say 'That's for me,' the ones who say 'You know what I mean.' Oh yeah. The ones who vote for the right because they're fed up with strikes. Oh yeah. The ones who vote white in order not to get dirty. The ones who never get involved with politics. Oh yeah. The ones who say 'Be calm, calm.' The ones who still support the king. The ones who say 'Yes, sir.' Oh yeah. The ones who make love standing in their boots, and imagine they're in a luxurious bed. The ones who believe Christ is Santa Claus as a young man. Oh yeah. The ones who say 'Oh, what the hell.' The ones who were there. The ones who believe in everything, even in God. The ones who listen to the national anthem. Oh yeah. The ones who love their country. The ones who keep going, just to see how it will end. Oh yeah. The ones who are in garbage up to here. Oh yeah. The ones who sleep soundly, even with cancer. Oh yeah. The ones who, even now, don't believe the world is round. Oh yeah, oh yeah. The ones who are afraid of flying. Oh yeah. The ones who have never had a fatal accident. Oh yeah. The ones who have had one. The ones who, at a certain point in their lives, create a secret weapon, Christ. Oh yeah. The ones who are always standing at the bar. The ones who are always in Switzerland. The ones who started early, haven't arrived, and don't know they're not going to. Oh yeah. The ones who lose wars by the skin of their teeth. Oh yeah. The ones who say 'Everything is wrong here.' The ones who say 'Now let's all have a good laugh.' Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah.