Lina Wetmuller, extraordinary director of unforgettable films, has died at the age of 93. You had made your debut with metallurgical Mimì wounded in her honor but the film that consecrated her to Olympus was Overwhelmed by an unusual destiny in the blue sea of August. She was the first female director to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director Pasqualino Seven beauties but she only got her statuette in 2019 when the Academy Award was given to her in an honorary capacity.
Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmuller von Elgg Spanol von Braueich, this was her real name, was born on August 14, 1928, aristocratic and Swiss but with a typical and pleasant Roman accent. She was married to the set designer Enrico Job and in Rome she lived in Piazza del Popolo for many years.
Her passion for the show manifested itself from a very young age she attended Piero Sharoff's Theater Academy and for a period she followed as director and entertainer Maria Signorelli's puppet theatre. She was the first television director (with Canzonissima for Rai which was the school for many talents) and already famously directed Gian Burrasca's Il GIORNO, the screenplay based on the book by Luigi Bertelli, a direction that made history and launched as an actress, playing the terrible brat, Rita Pavone.
Cinema comes later. Wertmuller was Federico Fellini's assistant director until she walks alone and she signs a series of successes: Metallurgist Mimì wounded in honor (1972) Film of love and anarchy – Or “This morning at 10 in via dei Fiori in the well-known brothel…” (1973) Overwhelmed by an unusual destiny in the blue sea of August (1974), the Oscar-nominated film Pasqualino Seven beauties (1976) The end of the world in our usual bed on a rainy night (1978) and Fact of blood between two men because of a widow. Political motives are suspected (1978)
His favorite actors were Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato, the unforgettable couple of Overwhelmed by an unusual fate…, the film then revived by Guy Ritchie with Madonna and Adriano Giannini, Giancarlo's son in the trial by fire.
Certainly it will be difficult to get used to missing him, his unconventional smile, his original gaze on the world through the ever-present white-rimmed glasses. She had dozens but all strictly white. This too is a quirk for a great director who has been able to give the comedy a dramatic depth, making fun of the male and female defects and defects of Italian society with intelligence.
