The world has lost a trailblazer of cinema. Lina Wertmüller, the first woman to gain a Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards, passed away on December 9th. She was living in Italy at the time. The Italian press first reported her death, stating that she was “surrounded by her daughter and loved ones”.

Wertmüller was born in Rome in 1928. Her father was a lawyer of Swiss descent and her mother was born in Rome. Wertmüller described her childhood as adventurous, she was kicked out of 15 different Catholic high schools and had a fascination with comic books. She would later describe Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon comics as “rather cinematic, more cinematic than most films.” Her love of comic books soon spawned an interest in film and the theater.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

After graduating Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D’Amico in 1951, Wertmüller began her career with puppeteer Maria Signorelli’s troupe. In the early 1960s, Wertmüller soon set her sights on film. Through a friend, she was introduced to director and screenwriter Federico Fellini, who would grow to become her mentor. She was also introduced to Giancarlo Giannini, who would later collaborate with her.

Wertmüller’s directorial debut was 1963’s I basilischi (also known as The Basilisks), which was well-received by audiences and won her first best director award at the Locarno Film Festival. She would go on to make four other films (Let’s Talk about Men, Rita the Mosquito, Don’t Sting the Mosquito, and The Belle Starr Story) throughout the sixties. Her 1972 film, The Seduction of Mimi, first brought Wertmüller to the Cannes Film Festival. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith’s Companion to Italian Cinema film was the start of “Wertmüller’s golden age.” Her next film, Love and Anarchy, which also starred Giannini, brought her back to Cannes with a nomination for the Palme d’Or.

Lina Wertmüller’s fame steadily climbed as her work got more recognition. Her 1974 film Swept Away… by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August (or shortened to Swept Away) was met with rave reviews. The film, which centered around a wealthy woman stranded on an island with one of her yacht’s crewmates are stranded on a desert island, earned a four star rating from Roger Ebert, his highest rating. It was also nominated for Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay by the New York Film Critics Circle. In 2002 there was a remake starring Madonna and directed by her then-husband Guy Ritchie, which was not so well received.

It was Wertmüller’s next film, 1975’s Seven Beauties, which finally landed her a Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards. The film stars Giannini, who plays an everyman that deserts the army during WW2 and is captured and sent to a German prison camp. Through flashbacks, we learn of his life leading up to that point. Including his seven sisters, his involvement in the killing of one sister’s lover, and his imprisonment in an insane asylum. The film would go on to receive four Academy Award nominations, including Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Writing (Original Screenplay), and Best Foreign Language Film. The New York Times had this to say about the film upon its release.

While she did lose the Best Director to John G. Avildsen for Rocky, Wertmüller’s nomination made history. She paved the way for female winners later on in years such as Kathryn Bigelow, who won in 2010 for The Hurt Locker, and Chloe Zhao, who won in 2021 for Nomadland.

In a 2019 interview with Variety, Wertmüller had this to say about how it felt being the first woman nominated for Best Director. She responded that it was the media reaction that made her realize the impact of it all.

This would not the be end of Wertmüller’s story. She would continue to direct throughout the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. While none of her later works received as much critical acclaim as her “golden age”, that didn’t stop her from pursuing what she loved. One such film, internationally known as On Moonlit Night or “Crystal or Ash, Fire or Wind, as Long as It’s Love”; followed an American journalist who pretends to be infected with the AIDS virus.

Her final feature film as a director was 2004’s Too Much Romance… It’s Time for Stuffed Peppers. The film followed a married couple (both in their seventies) whose relationship is in a crisis. The couple works through their differences in order to get their two sons and one daughter’s families together in time for grandmother Assunta’s birthday. Wertmüller would continue to receive thank you letters from women directors who say they’ve been inspired by her, up until her passing.

One of Wertmüller’s calling cards was the comically long titles she would give her films. The original title for her 1973 film Love and Anarchy was “Film d’amore e d’anarchia, ovvero ‘stamattina alle 10 in via dei Fiori nella nota casa di tolleranza…”. Her 1979 film known internationally as Blood Feud or Revenge is entered in the Guinness Book of Records for the longest film title. Its original title being “Un fatto di sangue nel comune di Siculiana fra due uomini per causa di una vedova. Si sospettano moventi politici. Amore-Morte-Shimmy. Lugano belle. Tarantelle. Tarallucci e vino”.

In 2008, the Harvard Film Archive in Cambridge, Mass., held a Wertmüller retrospective. As stated in the introductory material:

The archive would go on to point out how Wertmüller blended politics into Italian comedy:

The archive also made sure to include a spotlight for her lesser-known pieces, such as All Screwed Up and The Seduction of Mimi. In her 2019 interview with Variety, she was quoted as saying this about her art.

Rest in peace, Lina Wertmüller. This news comes to us from Variety.