The world has lost a trailblazer of cinema. Lina Wertmüller, the first woman to gain a Best Director nomination at theAcademy Awards, passed away on December 9th. She was living in Italy at the time. The Italian press first reported her death, stating that she was “surrounded by her daughter and loved ones”.

Wertmüller was born in Rome in 1928. Her father was a lawyer of Swiss descent and her mother was born in Rome. Wertmüller described her childhood as adventurous, she was kicked out of 15 different Catholic high schools and had a fascination withcomic books. She would later describe Alex Raymond’sFlash Gordoncomics as “rather cinematic, more cinematic than most films.” Her love of comic books soon spawned an interest in film and the theater.

After graduating Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D’Amico in 1951, Wertmüller began her career with puppeteer Maria Signorelli’s troupe. In the early 1960s, Wertmüller soon set her sights on film. Through a friend, she was introduced to director and screenwriter Federico Fellini, who would grow to become her mentor. She was also introduced to Giancarlo Giannini, who would later collaborate with her.

Wertmüller’s directorial debut was 1963’sI basilischi(also known asThe Basilisks), which was well-received by audiences and won her first best director award at the Locarno Film Festival. She would go on to make four other films (Let’s Talk about Men, Rita the Mosquito, Don’t Sting the Mosquito,andThe Belle Starr Story) throughout the sixties. Her 1972 film,The Seduction of Mimi, first brought Wertmüller to the Cannes Film Festival. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith’sCompanion to Italian Cinemafilm was the start of “Wertmüller’s golden age.” Her next film,Love and Anarchy, which also starred Giannini, brought her back to Cannes with a nomination for the Palme d’Or.

Lina Wertmüller’s fame steadily climbed as her work got more recognition. Her 1974 filmSwept Away… by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August(or shortened toSwept Away) was met with rave reviews. The film, which centered around a wealthy woman stranded on an island with one of her yacht’s crewmates are stranded on a desert island, earned a four star rating from Roger Ebert, his highest rating. It was also nominated for Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay by the New York Film Critics Circle. In 2002 there was a remake starring Madonna and directed by her then-husband Guy Ritchie, which was not so well received.

It was Wertmüller’s next film, 1975’sSeven Beauties, which finally landed her a Best Director nomination at the Academy Awards. The film stars Giannini, who plays an everyman that deserts the army during WW2 and is captured and sent to a German prison camp. Through flashbacks, we learn of his life leading up to that point. Including his seven sisters, his involvement in the killing of one sister’s lover, and his imprisonment in an insane asylum. The film would go on to receive four Academy Award nominations, including Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role,Best Writing (Original Screenplay), and Best Foreign Language Film.The New York Timeshad this to say about the film upon its release.

Seven Beauties is the work of a film maker at the peak of her energies, so full of ideas and images that she can afford to throw away moments that other, less talented directors would tediously emphasize.

While she did lose the Best Director toJohn G. Avildsen forRocky, Wertmüller’s nomination made history. She paved the way for female winners later on in years such asKathryn Bigelow, who won in 2010 forThe Hurt Locker, andChloe Zhao, who won in 2021 forNomadland.

In a 2019 interview withVariety, Wertmüller had this to say about how it felt being the first woman nominated for Best Director. She responded that it was the media reaction that made her realize the impact of it all.

“I was flooded with interview requests from TV networks and newspapers. Someone told me that news reports were trumpeting the nomination as though it were a historic event. Actually, in hindsight, it was, especially for women all over the world.”

This would not the be end of Wertmüller’s story. She would continue to direct throughout the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. While none of her later works received as much critical acclaim as her “golden age”, that didn’t stop her from pursuing what she loved. One such film, internationally known asOn Moonlit Nightor “Crystal or Ash, Fire or Wind, as Long as It’s Love”; followed an American journalist who pretends to be infected with the AIDS virus.

Her final feature film as a director was 2004’sToo Much Romance… It’s Time for Stuffed Peppers. The film followed a married couple (both in their seventies) whose relationship is in a crisis. The couple works through their differences in order to get their two sons and one daughter’s families together in time for grandmother Assunta’s birthday. Wertmüller would continue to receive thank you letters from women directors who say they’ve been inspired by her, up until her passing.

One of Wertmüller’s calling cards was the comically long titles she would give her films. The original title for her 1973 filmLove and Anarchywas “Film d’amore e d’anarchia, ovvero ‘stamattina alle 10 in via dei Fiori nella nota casa di tolleranza…”. Her 1979 film known internationally asBlood FeudorRevengeis entered in theGuinness Book of Recordsfor the longest film title. Its original title being “Un fatto di sangue nel comune di Siculiana fra due uomini per causa di una vedova. Si sospettano moventi politici. Amore-Morte-Shimmy. Lugano belle. Tarantelle. Tarallucci e vino”.

In 2008, the Harvard Film Archive in Cambridge, Mass., held a Wertmüller retrospective. As statedin the introductory material:

“During the 1970s, Lina Wertmüller emblazoned her name into the pantheon of Italian cinema with a series of intensely polemical, deeply controversial and wonderfully entertaining films. Among the most politically outspoken and iconoclastic members of the second generation of postwar directors — the direct heirs to the neo-realists — Wertmüller was also one of the first woman directors to be internationally recognized and acclaimed.”

The archive would go on to point out how Wertmüller blended politics into Italian comedy:

“Armed with a keenly satiric and Rabelaisian humor,” the Harvard archive said, she “reinvented the narrative forms and character types of Italian comedy to create one of the rare examples of a radical, politically galvanized cinema that managed to achieve widespread popularity. Indeed, the fierce invectives against social, cultural and historical inequities at the heart of Wertmüller’s mid-1970s masterworks ‘Love and Anarchy,’ ‘Seven Beauties’ and ‘Swept Away’ seemed only to help the films find an appreciative audience, especially in the United States.”

The archive also made sure to include a spotlight for her lesser-known pieces, such asAll Screwed UpandThe Seduction of Mimi. In her 2019 interview with Variety, she was quoted as saying this about her art.

“Really, there are two strands — two souls — which co-exist in my work: the lighthearted one associated with musical comedies and the more socially conscious one. They are both deeply part of my nature."

Rest in peace, Lina Wertmüller. This news comes to us fromVariety.