Swept Away
Italian theatrical release poster
ItalianTravolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto
Directed byLina Wertmüller
Written byLina Wertmüller
Produced byRomano Cardarelli
Starring
CinematographyEnnio Guarnieri
Edited byFranco Fraticelli
Music byPiero Piccioni
Distributed byMedusa Distribuzione
Release date
  • 19 December 1974 (1974-12-19)
Running time
114 minutes[1]
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian
Box office$6 million (US and Canada)[2] or $1,750,000[3]

Swept Away... by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August (Italian: Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto),[4] usually shortened to Swept Away, is a 1974 Italian romantic adventure comedy drama written and directed by Lina Wertmüller, starring Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato. The film follows a wealthy woman whose yachting vacation with friends in the Mediterranean Sea takes an unexpected turn when she and one of the boat's crew are separated from the others and they become stranded on a desert island. The woman's capitalist beliefs and the man's communist convictions clash, but during their struggle to survive their situation, their social roles are reversed.

Swept Away was released to divided, but largely positive, reviews, and it won the 1975 National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Award for Top Foreign Film. An English-language remake starring Madonna and directed by her then-husband Guy Ritchie, was released in 2002.

Plot

Actor Role
Giancarlo Giannini Gennarino Carunchio
Mariangela Melato Raffaella Pavone Lanzetti
Isa Danieli Anna Carunchio
Riccardo Salvino Signor Pavone Lanzetti
Aldo Puglisi Aldo
Eros Pagni Pippo

An arrogant wealthy woman named Raffaella Pavone Lanzetti is vacationing on a yacht in the Mediterranean Sea with friends—swimming, sunbathing, and talking incessantly about the virtues of her class and the worthlessness of the political left. Her nonstop political monologue infuriates one of the deckhands, Gennarino, a dedicated communist who manages to restrain his opinions to avoid losing his good job. Despite her humiliating insults, Gennarino agrees to take her out on a dinghy late in the evening to see the rest of her friends who have gone ahead without her. On their way, the outboard motor gives out, leaving them stranded in the middle of the sea with no land in sight.

After a night at sea, Gennarino manages to get the motor running again, but has no idea where they are. Eventually they spot an island and head toward it, destroying their dinghy in the process. On land, they discover that there is no one else on the island. Accustomed to having everything done for her, Raffaella begins ordering Gennarino about, but he snaps, refusing to assist her any longer. Raffaella reacts with a string of insults, but he gives as good as he gets, and they split up to explore the island on their own.

Gennarino is soon catching and cooking lobsters. Gradually their roles become reversed. While she has to rely on him for food, Gennarino wants her to be his slave, convinced that women are born to serve men. He even forces her to endure the indignity of washing his underwear. When she reacts in angry defiance, he slaps her around. Gennarino starts to rape her, but then changes his mind, deciding that it would be more satisfying if she gave herself to him willingly. Later that evening, Raffaella does approach him, and both willingly engage in passionate sex. He wants her to fall in love with him, and she becomes subservient to him. Eventually they spot a ship, and although they are both reluctant to disrupt their newfound paradise, they signal the ship and are rescued.

After returning home, they soon revert to their former lives and social roles—she once again embracing the upper-class lifestyle of her friends; he returning to a life of a lower-class worker and husband. Abandoned by the object of his desires, Gennarino returns defeated to his sad life and loveless marriage—far removed from an idyllic island in the Mediterranean Sea.

Production

The film was shot along the eastern Sardinian coast, in the province of Nuoro; the sailing yacht that can be seen at the beginning of the movie is the J-class yacht Shamrock V, at that time her name was Quadrifoglio.[5]

Reception

Critical response

In his review in the Chicago Sun-Times, American film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four stars, his highest rating. Ebert wrote that the film "resists the director's most determined attempts to make it a fable about the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and persists in being about a man and a woman. On that level, it's a great success."[4]

Other reviewers and analysts responded that those who focused on the misogyny simply didn't understand the film's message about class warfare. James Berardinelli defended the film, writing "Those who view this film casually may easily mistake it for a male fantasy... The reality, however, is that Wertmuller is exhibiting the courage to show things that other filmmakers shy away from."[6] John P. Lovell wrote "The sexual violence can be analyzed as political violence within the framework of patriarchal politics and the film's concern with a symbolic presentation of social revolt."[7]

In her review in Jump Cut, Tania Modleski dismissed those justifications, contending that critics would not have been so kind to those who made films which reinforced stereotypes—culminating in violent subjugation—about oppressed ethnic groups, so there was no justification for critics to praise a rape-fantasy film. Responding to the film's message about class warfare, she wrote "So even if Wertmuller wanted to convey only a political message, she has clouded rather than clarified the issues. She should have made both parties male."[8]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 57% positive rating from top film critics based on 21 reviews, with an average rating of 7.4/10.[9]

Awards and nominations

Award Category Year Nominee Result
David di Donatello Best Music 1975 Piero Piccioni Won
National Board of Review Award Top Five Foreign Films[10] 1975 Swept Away Won
New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Film 1975 Nominated
Best Director Lina Wertmüller Nominated
Best Screenplay Nominated
Tehran International Film Festival Best Film 1975 Won
Best Actress Mariangela Melato Won

Remake

The film was remade in 2002 as Swept Away, starring Madonna and directed by her then-husband Guy Ritchie. The film was a critical and commercial failure. The male lead was played by Adriano Giannini, the son of Giancarlo Giannini.

See also

References

Notes
    Citations
    1. ↑ "SWEPT AWAY (X)". British Board of Film Classification. 28 March 1977. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
    2. ↑ The Editors of Variety (2000). The Variety Almanac 2000. Boxtree Ltd. pp. 67–68. ISBN 0-7522-7159-8.
    3. ↑ Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 296. ISBN 9780835717762. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada
    4. 1 2 Ebert, Roger (20 February 1976). "Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Retrieved 4 April 2018.
    5. ↑ Yachting World, November 2001 (PDF) (in Italian). Retrieved 19 December 2021.
    6. ↑ Berardinelli, James (2002). "Swept Away". Reel Views. Retrieved 11 March 2007.
    7. ↑ Lovell, John P. (1998). Insights from Film into Violence and Oppression: Shattered dreams and the good life. Praeger/Greenwood. p. 47. ISBN 0-275-95972-4.
    8. ↑ Tania Modleski (1976). "Wertmuller's Women Swept Away by the Usual Destiny". Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media. 1976 (10–11): 1, 16. Retrieved 11 March 2007.
    9. ↑ "Swept Away (Travolti da un Insolito Destino nell'Azzurro Mare d'Agosto) (1975)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
    10. ↑ "1975 Award Winners". National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. 2019. Retrieved 16 May 2019.
    Bibliography
    • Bondanella, Peter (2009). History of Italian Cinema. New York: Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-1785-5.
    • Bullaro, Grace Russo (2007). Man in Disorder: The Cinema of Lina Wertmüller in the 1970s. Troubador Publishing Ltd. ISBN 978-1-905886-39-5.
    • Wertmüller, Lina (1978). The Screenplays of Lina Wertmuller. New York: Werner Books. ISBN 978-0-446-87262-1.
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