Monday, March 27, 2017

Seven Beauties

A self-styled playboy gangster (Giancarlo Giannini) with his own code of honor accidentally kills his sister’s pimp and finds himself captured by the Germans and interned in a concentration camp where he is put to the test of human extremes, whether it is sacrificing a friend, selecting men to die in his stead, or seducing the sadistic bullish prison warden. Lina Wertmuller’s acclaimed Seven Beauties is a bawdy and broad European style comedy and harrowing war picture that changes tones often but succeeds  thanks to great direction (Wertmuller became the first woman in Oscar history nomintated for Best Director) and Giannini's confident, emotive performance.

*** ½ out of ****