Seven Beauties

Seven Beauties is an Italian comedy-drama set largely in Naples and later in a German prison camp during the Second World War. Its central figure is Pasqualino Frafuso, a small-time crook and petty schemer who lives off the earnings of his seven sisters and styles himself the guardian of their honour, an ironic nickname given the family's circumstances. After a killing committed in the name of that honour, he is confined in a criminal asylum and then released into military service when war intervenes. Captured by the Germans, he is sent to a camp, where he tries to secure his own survival by winning over the female commandant. The film moves between his pre-war life in Naples and his ordeal in the camp, and closes with his return to a city celebrating the Allied arrival.

Lina Wertmüller directed and wrote the screenplay, her second film after The Seduction of Mimi in 1972 and before Sotto Sotto in 1984. Giancarlo Giannini plays Pasqualino and also produced; the cast includes Fernando Rey, Shirley Stoler, Elena Fiore, Roberto Herlitzka and Piero Di Iorio, with twenty credited performers.

Released in December 1975, the film runs 116 minutes. On IMDb it holds 7.7/10 from around 7,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.5/10 from 159 votes. A critics' rating of 8/10 from 21 reviews places it slightly above the audience scores on both platforms.