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CULTURE

Lina Wertmueller: Italy’s first Oscar-nominated female film director dies

Italian film director Lina Wertmueller, the first woman to be nominated for an Academy Award for directing, has died aged 93.

Published: 9 December 2021 16:20 CET
Lina Wertmueller receiving an honorary Oscar in 2019.
Lina Wertmueller receiving an honorary Oscar in 2019. Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images via AFP

“Italy mourns the death of Lina Wertmueller, a director whose class and unmistakable style left an everlasting mark on Italian and world cinema,” said Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini on Thursday.

Wertmueller, considered the country’s most famous female director, began her career in movies as an assistant to Federico Fellini before going on to become the queen of Italian comedy with a series of films in the 1960s and 1970s.

Immediately recognisable with her white spectacles and a vibrant sense of humour, Wertmueller’s long list of films also explored political and social themes, from fascism and sexual violence to class struggle, often featuring a down-on-his-luck everyman character.

In 1977, Wertmueller broke barriers by becoming the first woman to be nominated for a best directing Oscar, for her tragicomedy ‘Seven Beauties’ about an army deserter during World War II trying to survive his time in a concentration camp.

Another female director would not be nominated until 1994, when Jane Campion – who has called Wertmueller a “warrior” –  was given the nod for “The Piano”.

READ ALSO: Venice film festival under fire over lack of films by women

Wertmueller’s death comes two years after she received an honorary Oscar for her career during a ceremony focused on diversity.

She told the star-studded crowd in Hollywood that the award should be given a new, feminine name – such as “Anna”, she said – to reflect female talent in the film world.

Born in Rome on August 14, 1928, Wertmueller spent her early years working in the performing arts, producing plays and as a puppeteer.

In the early 1960s, actor Marcello Mastroianni introduced her to Fellini and she became the director’s assistant on his acclaimed film “8 1/2”.

Soon after, Wertmueller began shooting her first film, 1963’s “The Basilisks”.

READ ALSO: Fellini’s La Strada: a vision of masculinity and femininity that still haunts us today

International success arrived a decade later with “The Seduction of Mimi”, released in Italy in 1972.

And in 1974, “Swept Away,” a romantic adventure about two people stranded on a desert island with radically different political views, also won acclaim, scooping the best foreign film award from the National Board of Review in the United States.

The movie was remade decades later in 2002 by Guy Ritchie, starring Madonna.

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CULTURE

Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli dies at 83

Roberto Cavalli, whose penchant for python and flamboyant animal prints made him the darling of the international jet set for decades, died Friday at 83, the luxury company said.

Published: 13 April 2024 09:21 CEST
Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli dies at 83

“It is with deep regret and a great sadness the Roberto Cavalli Maison participates in the passing of its founder Roberto Cavalli,” wrote the company in a statement sent to AFP.

“From humble beginnings in Florence Mr. Cavalli succeeded in becoming a globally recognised name loved and respected by all,” said the company.

First seen in the 1970s on stars such as Sophia Loren and Brigitte Bardot, Cavalli’s skin-baring, eye-popping styles were still favoured years on by later generations of celebrities, from Kim Kardashian to Jennifer Lopez.

With a taste for Ferraris, thoroughbred horses, fat cigars and tailored shirts unbuttoned to expose his tanned chest, the designer’s private life also appeared the stuff of fantasy.

He married a Miss Universe runner-up, owned a purple helicopter and a Tuscan vineyard, and was on a first-name basis with A-listers like Sharon Stone and Cindy Crawford.

But the designer also weathered challenges, including a dry spell in the 1980s when minimalism took hold on runways and his form-fitting, feathered creations looked out of step.

A years-long trial in Italy on tax evasion charges ultimately ended in Cavalli’s acquittal, but after his eponymous fashion house began posting losses, a majority stake was sold to private equity in 2015.

Best known for his use of printed leather and stretchy, sand-blasted jeans, Cavalli always embraced the wow factor in his designs, never encountering an animal print he did not like.

The designer was tapped in 2005 to update the Playboy Bunnies’ scanty uniform — true to form, he introduced one version in leopard print.

Party crasher

Born on November 15, 1940 in Florence, Italy’s premier leatherworking centre, Cavalli began painting on T-shirts to earn money while at art school.

He recalled in his blog in 2012 how he gate-crashed a party in 1970, and, seeking to save face when he met the host, who was a designer, told him that he printed on leather.

When the designer asked to see some of his work the next day, Cavalli hurried to find samples of thin, supple leather onto which he printed a flower design.

The designer was impressed, and Cavalli was hooked.

Taking his inspiration from glove design, Cavalli began working with calfskin, patenting a new way to print leather with patterns that soon caught the eye of French luxury goods maker Hermes and the late designer Pierre Cardin.

In the 1970s, he opened a shop in Saint Tropez, playground of the world’s glitterati, and debuted his collection in Paris.

He went on to present for the first time in Italy at Florence’s opulent Palazzo Pitti, grabbing attention with his boho-chic patchwork designs on denim that married the unpretentious fabric with expert tailoring.

‘I’m copying God’

Of his ubiquitous use of prints, the animal lover — whose menagerie once included a monkey — told Vogue in 2011: “I like everything that is of nature.”

“I started to appreciate that even fish have a fantastic coloured ‘dress’, so does the snake, and the tiger. I start(ed) to understand that God is really the best designer, so I started to copy God,” he told the magazine.

In the 1980s Cavalli’s instantly recognisable, exotic designs were out of sync with the minimalist look that was all the rage, but the designer came back with a bang a decade later with distressed-looking jeans that proved a hit.

His fashion empire expanded to home furnishings, wine, shoes, jewellery and even a line of vodka, its bottle sheathed in snakeskin.

Taking his style to the high street, he designed a fast-fashion line for Swedish retail giant H&M and tour outfits for Beyonce, among others.

But the label began to suffer financial difficulties amid increased competition from well-funded brands owned by fashion conglomerates LVMH and Kering, and Cavalli stepped down as creative director in 2013.

Two years later, Milan-based private equity group Clessidra bought a 90-percent stake in the company, but a restructuring failed to reverse losses.

After filing for administration and closing its US stores, the fashion group was bought in November 2019 by Vision Investments, the private investment company of Dubai real-estate billionaire Hussain Sajwani.

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