So we follow the gregariously innocent Pasqualino as he tries to do right by the local mob while defending the honor of his 7 unattractive sisters. He’s not too physically appealing himself, but he does have an energetic charm that you won’t dismiss, even if you aren’t completely convinced of his dependability. After all, he somehow manages to bring home the dough to support his family, and the women in his life seem to respect and fear him enough. Men he meets might mock him, but his courage in dealing with insults is remarkable.
Unfortunately for Pasqualino, his pride gets the better of him and he ends up killing the pimp who made his sister a whore through promises of marriage. This doesn’t bode well with the “family”, and though plotting well enough to chop the body up and send it to various countries, inevitably he gets caught. He’s sent to prison, and is given electro shock treatments. A nurse takes pity on his begging, realizing he doesn’t fit with the slobbering patients he is housed with, and tells him his only way out is going to war, but anything seems better than his current situation.
Shortly after beginning his war campaign, he finds the fighting senseless and disperses his men in the hopes that survival will be higher. He appreciates the life he left much more, but none of this is spoken with heavy-handed dialogue. A mere glimpse at his face shows the growth of his integrity, the loss of a rose-shaded world. As Italy is taken over piece by piece, Pasqualino is captured and sent to a work camp. The adventure inherent in desperation to survive becomes even more compelling.
Though I’ve just written this section of synopsis linearly, the film actually unravels through a collage of backstory and present day predicament. This gives Wertmuller the advantage of comparing the stresses of war-time life, as a bystander and participant, instead of gradually necessitating making one situation worse than the last. Such tales usually take a nose dive into depression from one moment to the next, a practice often akin to dental surgery. In contrast, the structure of Seven Beauties allows for provocative contemplation of a no-win position, a far more interesting emotional build.
