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Lina Wertmüller's harrowing 1976 film stars Giancarlo Giannini as a petty crook with seven unattractive sisters to support, and it features a picaresque, World War II-era journey through a prison asylum, army service, and a Nazi concentration camp. Wertmüller is more indulgent in highbrow sadomasochism than she is real profundity, but there's no denying that the film is powerful in its story of subjugation and survival. A climactic scene in which Giannini saves his skin at the camp by seducing its disgusting female commandant is unnervingly honest. Giannini became a '70s international icon partially on the basis of this work. The DVD release has optional English and Italian soundtracks, production notes, and filmographies of the talent.
--Tom Keogh
Video Description
Nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Director, Seven Beauties stars Giancarlo Giannini (Swept Away) as Pasqualino Frafuso, known in Naples, Italy as "Pasqualino Seven Beauties". A petty thief who lives off of the profits of his seven sisters while claiming to protect their honor at any cost, Pasqualino kills the pimp who made his sister a prostitute, chops up his body and mails the pieces to different locations across the country. He is then arrested and later sent to fight in the army after committing sexual assault. The Germans capture him and he gets sent to a concentration camp where he plots to make his escape by attempting to seduce a German officer.