Lina Wertmüller (1928-2021)
- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
- Location: Worthing
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- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
- Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm
Re: Passages
I still think it’s shocking that in the recent gold rush to lift up female directors, one of the first major female directors to achieve “wide,” Bergman-level art house circuit recognition had been mostly left behind, or at least not foregrounded as you might expect
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: Passages
I was about to say the same thing especially since her films are genuinely great, but I guess she’s not as marketable to promote as the director of The Bigamist.
- dwk
- Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2010 6:10 pm
Re: Passages
I wonder how much of that has to do with the Kino havng the US rights to a big chunk of her films. A massive downside to them releasing so much is that their releases have no lasting impact. Like a physical media equivalent of streaming's drop every episode at once model.
- hearthesilence
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
- Location: NYC
Re: Passages
There's a 2005 NY Times column by Dave Kehr that mentions this (and another Chicago Reader article from the 1990s), but despite the vocal support of John Simon and Roger Ebert, recognition for her work went into a steep downward slide from what seems like the '80s to the present. Surprising as she was quite prolific up until 1999, but it looks like she made only one film in the 21st century (back in 2004). Also, she has been collecting quite a few lifetime achievement-type awards over the past decade, including an honorary Oscar...but somehow that hasn't translated into a resurgence with the public (retrospectives, hearing her pop up in the general discourse, etc.)
- ianthemovie
- Joined: Sat Apr 18, 2009 10:51 am
- Location: Boston, MA
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Re: Passages
I can't say I'm all that surprised by the lack of interest in Wertmuller's films in the recent revival of interest in female filmmakers. The gender politics of something like Swept Away are arguably even more provocative and eyebrow raising today than I imagine they were in the 70s. I can also see many younger American viewers trying to make her work square with current trends in feminism and absolutely losing their minds, or at the very least dismissing it as having "aged poorly" (which is a shame, because her irreverent humor about gender and sexuality is exactly what makes the films great!)
- senseabove
- Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2015 3:07 am
Re: Passages
The only thing approaching a retro that I've seen was the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco choosing her for their annual pick-an-Italian-movie-personality weekend marathon festival. Most other festival subjects have been acknowledged international titans like Antonioni, Magnani, Mastroianni, de Sica, Bertolucci, so it says something that she was included among that group, but...yeah, that was pretty well the first and last time I'd heard any discussion of her, and there wasn't much to that beyond "this is a thing that is happening." It didn't seem to spark any particular fever among any of the local cinephiles I know.
- jwd5275
- Joined: Tue Jun 08, 2010 12:26 pm
- Location: SF, CA
Re: Passages
Criterion would in the least have access to A Night Full of Rain from Warners, though having never seen it, I couldn't judge how worthy a use of resources a rescue would be...dwk wrote: ↑Thu Dec 09, 2021 3:32 pmI wonder how much of that has to do with the Kino havng the US rights to a big chunk of her films. A massive downside to them releasing so much is that their releases have no lasting impact. Like a physical media equivalent of streaming's drop every episode at once model.
- knives
- Joined: Sat Sep 06, 2008 6:49 pm
Re: Passages
That’s my thinking as well. While her logline seems an easy sell the way she is feminist and the way she is socialist are all at a severe remove from the narrow definition that is popular nowadays not to mention how as you said she has a sense of humour.ianthemovie wrote: ↑Thu Dec 09, 2021 3:50 pmI can't say I'm all that surprised by the lack of interest in Wertmuller's films in the recent revival of interest in female filmmakers. The gender politics of something like Swept Away are arguably even more provocative and eyebrow raising today than I imagine they were in the 70s. I can also see many younger American viewers trying to make her work square with current trends in feminism and absolutely losing their minds, or at the very least dismissing it as having "aged poorly" (which is a shame, because her irreverent humor about gender and sexuality is exactly what makes the films great!)
- Fred Holywell
- Joined: Thu Jun 10, 2010 11:45 pm
Re: Lina Wertmüller (1928-2021)
Nice tribute from TCM: TCM Remembers Lina Wertmüller (1928 - 2021)
- Matt
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 12:58 pm
Re: Lina Wertmüller (1928-2021)
I believe Turner Classic Movies aired a mini-retrospective of her work (maybe just the films that are with Kino) sometime in the last couple of years. I remember thinking, “Ah, this is finally my chance to catch up on her work,” and I watched half an hour of Seven Beauties, didn’t connect with it, and that was that.senseabove wrote:The only thing approaching a retro that I've seen was the Italian Cultural Institute of San Francisco choosing her for their annual pick-an-Italian-movie-personality weekend marathon festival.
To me, she’s always seemed like one of those filmmakers who was fashionable in the ‘70s among the arthouse crowd, but who had somewhere along the line lost their cinephile cachet by the time the DVD era rolled around and, unlike Varda or Demy or Tati, just never really got a surge of revived interest (see also Claude Sautet, Bertrand Blier, Alain Tanner, et al).
- Aunt Peg
- Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2012 5:30 am
Re: Lina Wertmüller (1928-2021)
We had a mini retrospective in Sydney of some Lina Wertmüller's work during the year. Her better known films were screened as well as a few lesser seen films. I was thriller that The Lizards (The Basiliks) was screening but then MUBI showed it so I didn't bother going to the screening. But I did get to see Ciao, Professore! (1992) which I'd never even heard of and it was an absolute delight from start to finish. Turns out it did get a DVD release back in 2004 that passed me by. We also had the pleasure of an introduction (pre-filmed before the film) by Wertmüller.
I've watched a few of her 1970 classics in recent years and all of them have held up very well. Anyway, for my money she is better than most filmmakers working today. Period.
I've watched a few of her 1970 classics in recent years and all of them have held up very well. Anyway, for my money she is better than most filmmakers working today. Period.
- hearthesilence
- Joined: Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:22 am
- Location: NYC
Re: Lina Wertmüller (1928-2021)
I don't know if this helps explain why there hasn't been a resurgence, but her work apparently was and continues to be very polarizing. Going through archival reviews of her work, she's had plenty of detractors (her entry in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film is especially brutal). I also noticed that many of those same detractors from back in the day seem to champion contemporary films by Akerman, Varda, etc. quite a bit. It probably doesn't help that Simon, perhaps Wertmüller's biggest supporter, apparently made some dubious arguments diminishing other Italian filmmakers in an attempt to boost his view that Lina Wertmüller was the greatest of them all.
- Fred Holywell
- Joined: Thu Jun 10, 2010 11:45 pm
Re: Lina Wertmüller (1928-2021)
The Criterion Channel is currently hosting the seven Wertmüller titles that Kino Lorber rereleased, plus the 2015 doc Behind the White Glasses.