Shirley MacLaine's performance, interpreting 7 women as different as it can be, is quite breathtaking. The quality of the mini-stories is uneven, some have aged rather badly in my opinion: Funeral Possession, Super Simone and Suicides. Others still provide a real entertainment and great fun: At the opera, Amateur night, and especially the last one, Snow, also starring Michael Caine, with a quite magical and fairy atmosphere. This was clearly the best part!
With so many great talents on screen, I expected a little more from Vittorio de Sica, a director I appreciate very much. Besides MacLaine and Caine, we find indeed a rather exceptional cast with Peter Sellers, Elsa Martinelli, Vittorio Gasman, Anita Ekberg, Philippe Noiret. Unfortunately, the format of 7 vignettes and the rather thin scenarios do not allow these great talents to express themselves as they should.
The movie would have been much better with 3 or 4 mini-stories, not more. De Sica took an evident pleasure in lining up the stars like pearls on a necklace, and Shirley MacLaine obviously enjoyed herself in this collection of roles, dresses and wigs. But the end result is still a bit meager.
This film was for me like an appetizer buffet, pretty to watch, sometimes fun to taste, but in the end you still fell hungry about something more substantial...
Review of Woman Times Seven
