On February 19, 1972, almost two decades after her entry into the world of cinema as publishing secretary and about ten after her debut “I basilischi” (1963), shot in the same year in which she also returned as assistant director to Fellini in ” 8 ½ ”after being so for“ La dolce vita ”, Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spanol von Braueich, aka Lina Wertmüller, presents her“ metallurgical Mimì wounded in honor ”in Italian cinemas. It is the film-springboard that projects both the director (whose name was already famous for the epochal TV drama Il Giornino di Gian Burrasca with Rita Pavone) and her friend and partner Giancarlo Giannini into the Olympus of Italian cinema ( who had practically made his debut with her on the big screen in the diptych of “musicarelli” sui generis again for the Pavone Non stuzziate la mosanzara, 1967, and Rita the mosquito, 1968; and then renewed the experience for another six -! – times in the only decade of the Seventies), but also the one that launched the couple composed of the latter and the unforgettable Mariangela Melato (four films together, three of which always directed by Lina). As well as one of the most eccentric “militant” satirical comedies of the decade, whose importance is also ratified by its inclusion, three months later, in the prestigious selection of the 1972 Cannes competition. Where Lina won nothing, probably only for a “twist of fate lurking around the corner like a road brigand “, to paraphrase one of his proverbial kilometer titles: but perhaps only because it was the year in which the Palme d’Or went (unanimously and ex-aequo, the most unique case that rare) to two other Italian films: The Mattei case by Francesco Rosi and The working class goes to heaven by Elio Petri, consecrating Gian Maria Volonté as best actor for both. What times. And what a cinema.
February 17, 2022 | 13:03
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