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Woman Times Seven More at IMDbPro »

10 out of 16 people found the following review useful:
Not one of Shirley's best but okay, 2 December 2001

Author: Marie-62 from xxxx

Well, this movie is a little pointless. The endings to each sequel aren't shone and the plots themselves except for Edith and Marie, are a little drastic. Can you imagine a beige haired Shirley MacLaine wondering around her apartment naked reading T.S. Elliot while a Mediterranean man and a gorgeous blonde Scot are sitting on the bed, paying more attention to this pixie like artistic woman than the story that she reads? A little odd...Yes...But Shirley pulled it off. All these stories have a theme "Love can drive you crazy." There's also a story of a rich, spoiled woman (Eve) who wants a stupid dress like no other so she tries to blow up the other owner of her dress! Then there's Edith, who loves her author husband enough to come out of her bland, unexciting shell into the characters that he creates. That 15 minute part right there could've been a movie. The doctor and Vic tell Edith that she's crazy but she cries from the roof top "I'M NOT CRAZY!!! I'M IN LOVE!!" There's Maria Theresa, who comes home a day early and catches her friend sleeping with her husband. In out rage she runs to hookers to sleep with another man to drive her husband wild with jealousy. Marie and Fred are two lovers who are confused about life. They decide to make a suicide pact. I was surprised at how cute Alan Arkin really was when he wasn't in "Wait Until Dark"! Anyhow, they both decide that no love is worth the trouble of shooting each other or whatnot. Of course after they finish boffing each other. There's Jeanne, who is followed with her friend by a "mysterious stranger" who was only hired to follow her to make sure that she wasn't cheating on her suspicious husband. All of these stories are odd and a little loony but seeing Shirley MacLaine change so much for each part is delight. She goes to every color of hair, every style of look, through every outfit you can imagine. She looks great! Apart from that, this movie is a little much for kids and well, I don't highly suggest it to anybody other than dedicated Shirley MacLaine fans. OTHER STARS: Michael Caine appears. He's too cute.

4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Woman MINUS Six, 17 August 2009

Author: Yokam from Chicago

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

It's always a bit sad when you remember a movie for so long, with such joy, and then finally when it comes out on DVD and you rush to view it, well, as Mr. Wolfe likes to say: "You can't go home again". I first saw this movie as a little boy, sneaking into the neighborhood theater. "Woman's Times Seven" was, after all one of those "foreign films" (though not really), and I was told that no self respecting all American boy should see it. So I was there the first day it opened. For a little boy, seeing Shirley Maclaine reading TS Elliot in the nude, or running around with heart-of-gold prostitutes was enough to proclaim this a masterpiece. For some strange reason this was a movie that didn't find its way onto regular TV, or even cable (or perhaps I just missed it), and only recently came out on DVD. So it remained as a great film in my mind all these years.

But then I just saw it again.

The problem is that six of the seven stories, watching them now as an "old man", just don't work. They are, more "shaggy puppy stories", than anything. Simple ideas (grieving widow being seduced in "eye shot" of her dead husband, scorned wife seeking revenge, pampered rich bitch, crazy UN translator, suicidal mistress, plain housewife trying to bring life back into her marriage, etc.) just fall apart after the first scene.

Sure, I remember Lex Barker as the ultimate writer cliché… two massive dogs at his side, ever lit pipe, writing sexy novels in his study wearing a smoking jacket, (and from then on wanted nothing more than to write novels myself!)… but basically so much of this film is forgettable, and the endings just sort of fizzle out. The first story, with Peter Sellers, the "family friend" escorting the beautiful grieving widow, walking right behind a horse-drawn Hearst along with a party of mourners, trying to seduce her while her dead husband's body is still warm, could have been wonderful… especially if they had allowed Sellers to do his own thing. But director De Sica (who plays a cameo in this story as one of the mourners) keeps it cold, and by the numbers. There is no motivation for what Maclaine decides to do at the end of this story. This seems to be a problem with the next five stories, their pay-offs are basically bankrupt.

Sure, even as a boy I got the joke that the photo of her lover in the story where she was a UN Translator having a "night" with two horny bureaucrats, was actually Marlon Brando, but when that one gag (which, by the way, they play into the ground) becomes the highlight of what should have been a "shocking" celebration of a possible "ménage a trios", then you have problems.

And when have you ever seen Alan Arkin complete wasted before?

So many of the endings have this kind of self-satisfied "shrug" to them. A sort of "oh well" sensibility that seems more cop-out than pseudo existentialism.

However, the reason I call this review "woman minus six", is that the movie is completely redeemed by the seventh and final story, called "Snow". A simple story, the most beautifully photographed in the streets of Paris, shows two best friends, Maclaine and Anita Ekberg on a shopping day, being pursued by what they believe to be a young smitten wannabe lover. In sweet simple scenes you follow the "suitor", (played with elegant grace by Michael Caine… and without one word of dialogue!) as he seems to pursue these two women. When they decide to split up after lunch to see which one he truly is after (although Ekberg does say: "Maybe he wants us both, he could be one of those moderns) Maclaine. to her joy, finds that he continues to follower her.

I won't spoil the ending, but this truly was a pure, finely crafted story, which says more about women, their needs, hopes, desires, fears and fantasy's, in fifteen minutes, than most movies do in two hours.

And finally Ortolani's theme which has been repeated through every story, also finally makes sense. Everything comes together in this last story. I'm sure there is no coincidence that it was placed last. They must have know it was the best. If only they had realized that, and thrown the other six out and started over… using "Snow" as their bar to try and rise above.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Seven tiered black comedy, 14 September 2010

Author: pljewkes from Boston, MA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Vittorio De Sica's seven tiered black comedy stars Shirley MacLaine alongside an international group of leading men. She's a widow wooed by Peter Sellers (during the funeral procession), the mousy, dejected wife of Rosanno Brazzi, an interpreter playing sex games with Vittorio Gassman & Clinton Grey, the unfulfilled wife of nitwit romance novelist Lex Barker, the shrike wife of wealthy Patrick Wymark, a cheating wife in a suicide pact with Alan Arkin, and finally a bored Parisian housewife pursued by Michael Caine. None of this is particularly memorable and only some of it's even funny, but MacLaine looks terrific and the actors are all fine (though Sellers vanishes too quickly & Caine has no on-screen dialog). There's some great Paris locations photographed by Christian Matras and Anita Ekberg and Elsa Martinelli appear in cameos.

5 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
It's Shirley times seven!, 7 September 2005

Author: moonspinner55 from redlands, ca

With Shirley MacLaine in a variety of different wigs and costumes (and a large variety of co-stars in the cast including Alan Arkin, Rossano Brazzi, Shirley's "Gambit" co-star Michael Caine, Anita Ekberg, Vittorio Gassman and a pre-"Being There" Peter Sellers), I was terrified this was going to be a replay of MacLaine's all-star marital farce "What a Way to Go!" Not quite, as Shirley is playing seven different women this time, in seven short stories about love and sex. The opening tale involving Shirl in a funeral procession is very witty, but the other six seem to progressively lose steam. Not the tour-de-force MacLaine's fans were probably hoping for, it does have some cute bits and pieces but suffers from a muddy production and tepid handling overall. *1/2 from ****

1 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Aside from the writing, it's not too bad..., 23 October 2011

Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

My summary was facetious. Without good writing, a film simply isn't worth seeing--which pretty much sums up my opinion on "Woman Times Seven". It's very poorly written--quite uneven and at times annoying. The director didn't help any, as the film lacks subtlety and simply is a chore to watch. My only reason to watch it is that Peter Sellers was in it--but barely.

Shirley MacLaine stars in seven different vignettes as a woman living in Europe. The shorts are supposedly funny (which they aren't) as well as a bit bawdy. I real felt sorry for the actress, as she was far too talented to be in such a lousy film. In fact, my wife kept asking me "why are you watching that STUPID film"--until finally I realized she was right and turned off this dreadful mess.

4 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
See? I Told You So!, 21 July 2004
Author: JT Clark (jtclark01@comcast.net) from Naples, Florida USA

Woman Times Seven may not be the greatest film IL' Shirl has ever made ("Being There" comes to mind), and it may not be her high water mark for sheer feminine beauty (the scene where she's on the elevating psychiatrist's couch in "What A Way To Go" certainly takes that prize), but just to look at her as the grieving widow, to the surprise revelation of that cute little bow at the back of her apron in such a strategic place, to how she CLEARLY was the most spectacular femme at the opera...ah, what a piece of work is woman!

In this day and age, where women think that they don't need makeup, or stockings, or stiletto pumps, where hair is considered attractive if it looks like one just got out of bed and used fingers alone, and before they wake up and realize that tattoos and piercings are sooo trampy, that quick-cut set of takes where she is at once the house mouse in her little peignoir and just as instantly the SAME WOMAN is the man-eating vixen Simone is CLEAR CUT PROOF that with the right grooming and wardrobe ANY woman can be a goddess. I've been saying THAT for years, but no one but the cinematic cognoscenti would even know what I'm talking about.

Beyond that, the flick has EXACTLY the right taste of Sixties-flick, and that's enough said. Remember: Heaven will be all-Sixties forever.

JTC

3 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Before feminism, people had affairs..., 9 May 2000

Author: Eric Sayettat (sayettat@hotmail.com) from Auckland, New Zealand

Seven mini plots, funny or sad but all in all quite witty. How far can sex, or love, or the urge for something new... can turn a man into a fool !

De Sica's movie a typical example of the 1960's Italian cinema. He could have adopted an even more brittle style and turned the whole thing into a complete farce. May be this movie is a bit too serious.

1 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
could have done better, 25 November 2004

Author: David Acres (david_acres@hotmail.com) from London

With all the stars on call and what seems like a decent budget the seven short films often seem to be struggling to find a point and fall flat. The only exception is Michael Cane's outing.

This is a little gem, a perfect musical score and well shot. The story has a little twist and is what I imagine all the other six films aspired to.

SPOILER

Shirley is, in my humble view, looking absolutely stunning, as the faithful wife/sex kitten who never quite strayed from the path, but the first time she is tempted is, ironically enough.. by the private eye following her on the orders of her jealous husband.

Excellent little short, makes the film worth watching.

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