The Seduction of Mimi (1972)

Mimí, forced to leave his family in Sicily, finds a job in a factory in Turin, where he gets involved in an extramarital affair.

Director:

Lina Wertmüller

Writers:

Lina Wertmüller (screenplay), Lina Wertmüller (story)

Stars:

Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato, Agostina Belli

8 wins & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Giancarlo Giannini	...	Carmelo Mardocheo detto Mimí
Mariangela Melato	...	Fiorella Meneghini
Agostina Belli	...	Rosalia Capuzzo in Mardocheo
Luigi Diberti	...	Pippino
Elena Fiore	...	Amalia Finocchiaro
Tuccio Musumeci	...	Pasquale
Ignazio Pappalardo	...	Massaro 'Ntoni
Rosaria Rapisarda
Umberto Lentini
Salvatore Savasta
Andrea Maugeri
Salvatore Centamore
Sara Micalizzi
Ottorino Russo
Francesco Pellegrini	...	(as Francesco Pellegrino)

Storyline

In Sicily, the mine worker Carmelo "Mimí" Mardocheo votes in the Communist Party candidate instead of in the Mafia's one believing that the suffrage is secret. After the elections, he loses his job and cannot find any other job in his village that is controlled by the mobster Don Calogero. He leaves his wife Rosalia with his family and travels to Turin expecting to find a job. He finds an illegal position in the civil construction that is also explored by the Mafia and when a coworker dies in an accident, he finds that the mobsters have dumped his body on the road. However, he does not report the crime to the police and lies to the mobster Salvatore Tricarico telling that he belongs to the family of a powerful mobster. Mimi gets a metallurgic position and joins the Communist Party. Then he fall in love with the virgin Trotskyite street vendor Fiorella Meneghini and they have a boy. When Mimi witness the mobster Vico Tricarico executing several men in a hotel, he survives but he does ...

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Plot Keywords:

large buttocks | sex scene | sexy | black comedy | turin italy | 

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Taglines:

He's been a husband, a lover, a cuckold and a Communist. Now he just wants to be free.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Connections

Edited into Lo schermo a tre punte (1995)

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Soundtracks

La Cumparsita
Music by Sunny Skylar

User Reviews

Misadventures of Mimi

As a woman director in the early seventies, in a series of films Lina Wertmuller took on the issues related to gender and sexual revolutions, feminism and entrenched politics and economics. This work is one of them.

As is true of this part of her oeuvre, the film works on many levels. The director is never satisfied with merely going after the easy laughs. Any viewer looking for social commentary, both in the main story-telling and the subtext will come away satisfied.

This is a very "Italian" and "European" movie, in the sense that it captures the spirit of the times: both of the Italian North/South cultural wars/divide and of a particular European concern with the strength of "left" political and artistic movements and explorations of alternative, non-materialistic life-styles.

All of this is shown as experienced by Mimi, a southern Italian everyman, buffeted by fate. In this role, Giancarlo Giannini once again shows his mastery of the acting craft. As is true for all foreign films, my advice is that if you don't know the language of the original, always view the subtitled version, so as not to miss the subtleties of the individual performances.

I won't give away any of the plot. Just want to note that (as an architect, not a formally- trained film-maker) I can still appreciate the choices made by the director and cinematographer in telling the story. This is true for a thousand details. In the case of this film, the inspired choice of the camera lens ("fish-eye") for the scene between Giannini and Elena Fiore toward the end of the movie, adds immeasurably to its effectiveness. See for yourself and ROTFL.

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

19 February 1972 (Italy)

Also Known As:

The Seduction of Mimi

Filming Locations:

Catania, Sicily, Italy

Box Office

Gross USA:

$466,215

Company Credits

Production Co:

Euro International Film (EIA)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1