It’s always so jarring and upsetting to learn that someone you have greatly admired has died — no matter how old they are.
Italian writer-director Lina Wertmüller, who passed away last week at age 93, was one of those industry icons whom I had hoped to one day reconnect with. I had the honor of first meeting her two years ago when she was in Los Angeles at a luncheon given in her honor by Women in Film. I remember at the time being struck by how healthy and vibrant Wertmüller still was for her age — a dynamo packed into a petite frame with her trademark white plastic glasses and striking white hair.
I wrote about our encounter in my Oct. 29, 2019, editor’s letter, recounting how I talked with her about what a significant place she held in the annals of movie history as a revolutionary, provocative filmmaker and the first...
Italian writer-director Lina Wertmüller, who passed away last week at age 93, was one of those industry icons whom I had hoped to one day reconnect with. I had the honor of first meeting her two years ago when she was in Los Angeles at a luncheon given in her honor by Women in Film. I remember at the time being struck by how healthy and vibrant Wertmüller still was for her age — a dynamo packed into a petite frame with her trademark white plastic glasses and striking white hair.
I wrote about our encounter in my Oct. 29, 2019, editor’s letter, recounting how I talked with her about what a significant place she held in the annals of movie history as a revolutionary, provocative filmmaker and the first...
- 12/15/2021
- by Claudia Eller
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Lina Wertmüller in Behind the White Glasses (2015).Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller, the first woman to be nominated for a directing Oscar (for 1975's Seven Beauties), died on December 9. After working as an assistant director for Federico Fellini on 8 1/2, Wertmüller went on to become a prolific and distinctive filmmaker in her own right, combining politics and sex and humor in films like The Seduction of Mimi and Swept Away. In an interview with Criterion, she stated: "I consider myself a director, not a female director. I think there’s no difference. The difference is between good movies and bad movies. We should not make other distinctions." The prolific critic and theorist bell hooks has died today. In addition to her many writings on the feminist movement and cultural politics, hooks was also an important media theorist.
- 12/15/2021
- MUBI
Actor Giancarlo Giannini’s collaboration with writer-director Lina Wertmüller, who died Dec. 9 at age 93, spans nine films, including raucous sex comedy and social satire “The Seduction of Mimì” — his first leading role in a Wertmüller movie — which brought them both their first taste of international fame. Giannini spoke to Variety by phone from Rome about their symbiotic relationship and unique rapport.
How did you and Lina first intersect?
I was studying acting at the National Academy in Rome. She came to see two plays I was in — one was by Molière — and offered me parts in two musical movies with the great pop singer Rita Pavone. Then when Lina had the idea for “The Seduction of Mimì” [1972], no other Italian actor wanted to play the lead. She had offered it to Marcello Mastroianni, among others, but he turned it down. So, she offered it to me, and I leaped at it.
How did you and Lina first intersect?
I was studying acting at the National Academy in Rome. She came to see two plays I was in — one was by Molière — and offered me parts in two musical movies with the great pop singer Rita Pavone. Then when Lina had the idea for “The Seduction of Mimì” [1972], no other Italian actor wanted to play the lead. She had offered it to Marcello Mastroianni, among others, but he turned it down. So, she offered it to me, and I leaped at it.
- 12/15/2021
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
Ever since Guy Ritchie exploded into the independent cinema landscape in the late 1990s, he’s been one of the signature auteurs of the crime genre, injecting a particular blend of style and enthusiasm — and a penchant for overlapping ensemble storylines — into the cinematic lexicon. To his fans, that’s enough: Ritchie’s many similar crime comedies scratch a particular itch by telling one type of story in largely similar ways, not unlike a series of slasher sequels or rom-coms. To his critics, it sometimes seems like Ritchie is a one-trick pony, even though he’s repeatedly tried, with some success and some failures, to break out of his iconic style and prove how multifaceted he can be.
11. “Swept Away” (2002)
Lina Wertmüller’s “Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August,” and all of its controversial ideas and artistic ambition, gets swept away in a tidal...
11. “Swept Away” (2002)
Lina Wertmüller’s “Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August,” and all of its controversial ideas and artistic ambition, gets swept away in a tidal...
- 1/24/2020
- by William Bibbiani
- The Wrap
Guy Ritchie is spicing up the DVD release of Swept Away - in a desperate attempt to win over film fans. The re-make movie flopped on the US box office charts after its cinematic release last year. So the British movie-maker is including a raunchy 'director's cut' on the DVD version - including naked shots of his wife Madonna and her hunky co-star Adriano Giannini. A source tells US gossip site The Scoop, says, "Madonna is romping on a beach with her naked male co-star Adriano Giannini, and in another shot she has her legs wide open while lying on the floor. These sexy scenes were not included in the original version of the movie but adding them to the DVD will, Madonna and Guy hope, grab the attention of the home movie market." The remake of Lina Wertmuller's 1974 movie Travolti Da Un Insolito Destino Nell'azzurro Mare D'Agosto swept the floor at last week's Razzie awards - scooping five gongs at the spoof ceremony dedicated to Hollywood's worst films.
- 3/27/2003
- WENN
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