Swept Away

(Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto, Lina Wertmüller, Italy 1974, 114 min., 35mm, Italian w/subtitles)

The story in Swept Away is as simple as a folktale and vivid as an epic. Cruising the Mediterranean on her yacht, a bourgeois dame (Mariangela Melato) flaunts her disdain for her communist manservant (Giancarlo Giannini). Once they are shipwrecked on a deserted island, however, the tables turn with a vengeance. Wertmüller supported that in this film, gender is simply a symbol in a fable about the war between not the sexes but the classes. A kinky and still-controversial 1970s cult classic.

Presented by Dr. Elisabetta Sanino D’Amanda, Modern Languages and Cultures Department, with the support of the College of Liberal Arts, RIT.