Capital Celluloid 2019 - Day 72: Wed Mar 13

The Seduction of Mimi (Wertmuller, 1972): Barbican Cinema, 6.20pm


This screening is introduced by Cecilia Zoppelletto, filmmaker and visiting lecturer at University of Westminster. It is part of the Lina Wertmuller season at the Barbican. Full details here.
Barbican Cinema season introduction:
An arthouse sensation who became the first woman to be nominated for the Best Director Oscar®, Lina Wertmüller was one of the most acclaimed directors in world cinema in the 1970s. Her devastating, unflinching critique of fascist Italy, her embrace of ribald humour, and her dissections of entitled masculinity mark her as a unique and brave filmmaker. Her admirers include Spike Lee, Jodie Foster and Martin Scorsese, who praise her unique artistic vision. Despite continuing to make films into the 2000s, Wertmüller’s work is almost unknown in the UK, and is very rarely screened. Her ruthless satires are challenged by feminist critics for the sometimes problematic portrayal of women, but she has nonetheless given an array of great actresses unforgettable roles.

Chicago Reader review:
Italian director Lina Wertmüller was a flash in the pan, but this 1974 film was probably her brightest flash, a comedy about a working-class bumbler (Giancarlo Giannini) whose love life runs afoul of politics. The film never moves far from the conventions of Italian sex farces—that is, it's a comedy of embarrassment and frustration—but the flip Marxism adds a little flavor. Wertmüller approaches the wrenching tastelessness of Billy Wilder without following through to Wilder's redemptive purgation. With Mariangela Melato; remade as the Richard Pryor comedy Which Way Is Up?
Dave Kehr

Here (and above) is an extract.

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