Cinema Italia: Pasqualino Settebellezze (Lina Wertmüller, 1975)

Sunday 28 January 2024, Seven Beauties [Pasqualino Settebellezze] (1975) * Directed by Lina Wertmüller * 115min * In Italian with English subtitles * doors open at 20:00, film starts at 20:30. After the film, please engage in sharing comments, ideas, and inspiration with the host(s) of the evening!

Pasqualino Frafuso, know as Settebellezze (Seven Beauties) navigates and survives life adversities thanks to his charisma. The film spans from the 1930 till the end of WWII, goes back and forth through time, and the protagonist’s choices and relative consequences show how life events (both on a small and a bigger scale) could change one’s life and core beliefs in order to survive, but at what cost?
Jumping from drama to comedy, and back again at the first one passing by the grotesque as a genre, this film shows how someone’s life pillars might shake and then shutter just to keep going and stay alive, especially regarding the theme of self-respect.
The film is a historical drama in a highly dense timeframe, but we are aware of what’s going on just from what touches directly our protagonist’s life, which invites drawing a parallelism with us today and with what we perceive, what we are aware of that’s happening in “our” countries and around the world and how those events directly affect us.

Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Free entrance. You want to screen a movie, let us know: joe [at] lists [dot] squat [dot] net