Swept Away...

Lina Wertmuller

This film made a hell of a splash when it was released 40 years ago and it's easy to see why. It takes on...in the most direct, exaggerated terms...political/social inequality and the war between the sexes. The fact that it was made by a woman is astonishing. Sex is shown here not as an expression of love, affection or procreation but as an act of pure power and control.

The film was extremely well made and stands as an act of courage for the director and the two main players...Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato. The point they make is very clear and bludgeoned into the minds of the dimmest viewer: social relationships are continual struggles for power. Period. All the rationalizations we use to couch this primal drive are just that...excuses and weak ones at that.

This is a most un-PC stance and that fact gives the film it's lasting power. It's a rare polemical film that works. Unforgettable.

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