Swept Away

A make-or-break film or the make-or-break film for whether the cinema of Lina Wertmüller is for you? Swept Away is a combination of her rebellious treatment of sexual politics, class politics, and regional differences populated with her two favorite actors, Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato. I found this tale of feminist manifesto bait-and-switch provocative, entertaining, and a wild ride throughout.

Swept Away finds Melato playing a high society bitch that is prone to political screeds, mainly delivered in the form of gesticulated shouting, who gets stranded with one of her laborers, Giannini going broke in a performance that borders on the unlikable. Each of them represents something, North vs South, capitalism vs communism, and, of course at its most basic, male vs female. It is in how Wertmüller sets them up in the beginning as archetypes then begins to flip the script and blur the polarities between them.

Yes, there is a strong element of S&M fantasy at the center as Giannini threatens Melato with sexual and physical violence (that she seems not only open but receptive towards), but there’s a purpose. Melato’s performance is so carefully layered and moderated that we notice when she finally submits to Giannini there’s an undercurrent of understanding in her eyes. She has learned how to control and manipulate through submission.

The characters eventual declarations of love are proven entirely conditional to their proximity to society. Island life allows them to craft a cracked romance while a return to the mainland reminds them of the deep divides which cannot be overcome. Or Melato’s society dame simply refuses to overcome them and returns to her life of luxury and privilege. It’s a spiky ending that had me howling for its refusal of a happy ending and its underlining of its female character’s agency as its core.

Swept Away is not so much a love story as it is an exploration of learning to manipulate and a subversion of machismo. Not only is a bravura piece of filmmaking, but it’s a potent and potentially dangerous minefield to explore. Wertmüller manages to make something not only daring but beautiful and strange. A masterpiece, in short.