Presented as part of Passport: Love & Anarchy: The Radical Comedies of Lina Wertmüller.
From 1963 until her death in 2021, Italian filmmaker and screenwriter Lina Wertmüller weaponized comedy to skewer the status quo. While championing the downtrodden, she seared political ideology across the spectrum, reveling in the essential absurdity of the modern world and humanity full stop.
The first female filmmaker to receive a Best Director nomination at the Oscars, she challenged the second-wave feminism of her time, weaving class consciousness and gender politics into common cloth, shredding both proletarian male-chauvinists as well as the women of the bourgeoisie.
Extravagantly colorful, sexually-charged, and acidicly funny, we present three films produced in rapid succession from 1972-1974 finding Lina Wertmüller and global cinema writ large at a charmingly anarchic high.
The Seduction of Mimi running June 15 — 19
A politically-rutterless sad sack pingpongs between social tiers and women in a blistering satire about government corruption, compromised labor leaders, and the Neanderthal sexual politics of men in power.
"A wonderfully funny sexual farce."
–The New Yorker
Palme d'Or nominee, 1972 Cannes Film Festival