Swept Away [1973] [DVD]

Whew. This is a bit of a different film, viewed 46 years later, what with the last century come and gone, and now the #ME TOO movement. A forgotten goodie, worth re-watching for some, and unknown to many film buffs who should know more about Wertmüller. A battle-of-the-sexes like none other; the Madonna remake doesn't even come close; indeed, it misses the point.There are 4 Wertmüller gems to watch from the 70s, this one, The Seduction of Mimi, Seven Beauties, and Love and Anarchy. Wertmüller's "secret weapon" in all of them is Giancarlo Giannini.The woman is still alive, and has had a long career, but these four are the ones many of us old-timers remember, at least here in the States.

Ok, I get the symbolism of the characters for Italy et al, but this is a gross method to tell that tale. While some will decry my point of view as not being “deep enough” to look past the violence - or judging the storyline by “today’s morals“, I say don’t be a “s_head of s_heads” (as is a popular curse in the movie). I don’t find it a particularly “modern” point of view to say that a man physically beating a woman, chasing her while threatening to rape her, beating her more, throwing himself on her while verbally and physically attacking her and continuing to threaten rape... is not entertainment nor is it artistically deep. Then following up all of that actual violence with the charming tale of her developing feelings for him... Give me a disgusted break. This isn’t an issue of my “modern values” - it’s an issue with wanting to tell a political story and thinking it’s somehow very clever and high minded to package that story as role reversal and domestic violence coupled with Stockholm Syndrome. I don’t see this as a fantastically deep, artsy piece of work. I see it as a lazy effort at being provocative - and pretending that passes as something more. It’s a patently offensive storyline - for all involved, coupled with characters who are all miserable, unlikable people. What a fail.

An upper-class lady and her friends enjoy a stay on a yacht, cruising the Mediterranean and enjoying life on board. The servants do everything to keep them happy, albeit cursing their crazy habits. One day, the lady embarks on a tour with a small boat with just one servant and, due to weather and circumstances, they get lost. Finally, they strand on a small island – and there…But 1st, this is a story about Italy as it had been some time back. Many people of lower class where devoted to the communist party, the ideas of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels where prominent in their minds. The high and highest class ignored that altogether and took sweet life for granted.On this island, the lady is helpless. The servant takes charge – of the island, of the lady – and they fall in love.Unfortunately, the servant wants to go back to their lives, as it had been before their shipwrecking adventure started, to see if their love will last.

This and "Seven Beauties" played as a double feature in West LA and Beverly Hills for YEARS. That's how good these two movies are. Masterpieces. "Swept Away" is SO good that you won't believe it ... the scenery, the WONDERFUL performance from Mariangela Melato, and the animalistic performance of Giannini all made this movie a MUST see. I love it!

This movie has not aged well. Although the performances are still strong, times have changed since it came out. It is now politically unacceptable in most circles. If the movie were released today, I doubt they any major studio would touch it.

I had seen this film once before years ago and took it for just gender politics. Then I wanted to write a paper on it for my undergraduate Cinema Studies class and when I started to do research, I realized this movie was an allegory for the political atmosphere of Italy in the late 60s and early 70s. Being a young American, I was not aware of the struggles and sometimes terrorism that went on there during that period. Even if you don't know about the politics you can still enjoy it if you can get over the woman being hit constantly (it really helps to read what the director said about that, the characters are representations of classes, so it is not about a man beating a woman, but the lower class rising up against their oppressors) [...] is where you can find my paper if you would like to read more on it. Otherwise, a beautiful movie with terrific actors, especially the ruggedly handsome Giancarlo Giannini with his crazed eyes and stellar performance.

This famous Italian film (1973) is a political allegory about class struggle, the struggle between rich and poor. The poor struggle, the rich stay rich, seemingly eternally. Might means right is the logic or illogic behind the set-up. The rich are indolent, privileged, entitled, arrogant. The poor are peasants, servants, coolies, or even worse, grovellers.Gennarino is not a groveller. He’s poor, in servitude, but not servile. Inwardly he rages with bitterness, sensitive to the slights and condescension that inequality inflicts. His hatred is pure, incandescent, almost a thing of beauty. He’s both proud and proud of it. It might even be the fuel that keeps him going. He’s a revolutionary, or would be if properly organised and set free to express himself, transforming his grievances into action. He’s from the South, perhaps from as far away as Calabria.Raffaella is a spoiled prima donna, a sophisticate from Milan, fashion capital of Italy. She’s pampered, opinionated, lazy, loud-mouthed, bossy, bitchy and beautiful. Her husband is a hamster or mouse in the body of a man. She barks orders, he jumps, squeaks, obeys.Gennarino, the hired boat hand, and Raffaella, the decadent sophisticate, meet aboard a lavish yacht in the Mediterranean. The boat sails and drifts somewhere near Sardinia or Corsica. The sky is blue and so is the sea. The hot summer sun is yellow, orange, red or white, depending on time of day. Raffaella’s hair is blonde, her body bronze and well oiled. She’s shapely and mostly naked on deck, her thin string bikini concealing next to nothing. She’s even topless sometimes, her fine firm breasts brazenly displayed for all to ogle over. “Look all you want” says her body language, a message meant for the men onboard, aristocrats and servants alike. But the other unspoken message is, “I’ll be the one who determines who can touch them.”Gennarino is appalled. No respectable woman where he comes from would ever think to behave like this. She’s a rotten hussy. Yes, her beauty is unmistakable. This he acknowledges, or a portion of his lower anatomy does. But the overwhelming feeling is contempt, not lust. She’s a typical worthless product of the worthless ruling class, a class that makes all the decisions in favour of itself and leaves the rest of society to decay, particularly the poor who have no recourse to effective political power. Gennarino looks at Raffaella and seethes, swearing to himself she knows what she’s doing, turning over in the hot sun like that just so he and the others can get better glimpses of her bum and breasts.It’s decadent and shameful the way these toffs carry on. The men play cards, smoke, drink, gamble. They also swap wives for shagging. He can’t believe it, mortified on their behalf. They behave like animals, as if there’s no hell, brazen in the face of sin and God’s clear commands. How can they be so stupid? Do they really think, come Judgement Day, that God is going to overlook their immorality and forgive them? We are taught he is merciful, but this is all too much. He wants to drown the lot of them. The world would be better off without them. His hatred sustains him.Apart from her sexual taunting, Raffaella also enrages Gennarino with her politics. She’s a conservative, of course, cloistered in her wealth, and has probably never done an honest day’s work in her life, her fingernails clean and manicured. Modern Italy is troubled with many things, but she’s got solutions for all its problems. The trade unionists, leftists, liberals, communists — they all need to go. They’re all just so much raw sewage polluting the body politic. But the right is too weak, too spineless to do anything about them. Bring back the days of Mussolini when things got properly done. In those days there was no fooling around. Society was settled and life was excellent, the rabble kept out of sight for good. She longs for the halcyon days she has read or heard about, a time when order was solid and kept, when the world made sense and was at peace for her kind and class.Gennarino hears this contemptible patter and wants to drive a knife or stake through her. He’s working class of course, of peasant stock, a communist. Private wealth and capitalism are the source of all woe to him, the reasons for inequality, injustice and poverty. The toffs have had their boots on the throats of the peasantry for generations and nothing ever changes in Italy. It’s people like Raffaella who are the enemy. Given half a chance he’d slit her own throat, an act of defiant atonement for his class.One afternoon some of those onboard have taken a skiff over to a nearby island to do some snorkelling. Raffaella declined their invitation to join them, but after they are gone she becomes bored and changes her mind. She calls for a deckhand below to ferry her over to the island. To his chagrin, it’s Gennarino she calls.Gennarino is smallish, dark, swarthy. He has the salty look of the sea about him — unkempt hair, scraggly beard, leathery skin. He is weatherbeaten, storm tossed, windblown. He is of the land but largely lives at sea, his peasant wife and brood of kids at home in their hovel in Calabria. He comically looks at bit like Popeye, though his muscles don’t bulge and it’s doubtful he eats spinach. A cigarette, lit or not, always seems to dangle from his lips. He never smiles, only scowls. The world is a hard place and has made him hard and tough. Even at sea there is no escape from the world.Cursing under his breath he readies the motorboat and helps Raffaella into it. He sits at the back, manning the motor. She sits at the front, as far from the man’s stench as she can get. She bitches the whole way over toward the island. Is this the right motor? Can’t the boat go faster? Are you really a sailor? Do you know what you’re doing? Her patience can only hold out for so long. It’s tedious and tiring, enduring the company of people like Gennarino. There is nothing to say, no polemics to discuss. It must be awful to have the mind and comprehension of a peasant. How do they endure their days? What gets them through? Why do they live? Are they really quite human?They got a late start, thanks to Rafaella’s initial delay not to accompany her friends. The sun is still up, but maybe only four or five hours of light are left. She’ll not have much time to snorkel with her friends. Hurry up! What’s wrong with this boat? Are you sure the throttle is fully open? Is there something wrong with the petrol? Why can’t you make it go faster?The world of Rafaella is one of incessant complaint. It’s habitual, like breathing. The world is all wrong. It must be made perfect and constantly disappoints her. Small wonder her husband is a rodent, a thing that keeps to the shadows. Gennarino grits his teeth and growls, out of his head with rage. He can’t even look at her. Her complaints, non-stop, are like mosquitoes biting him. He swats them away by not listening.The motor fails. It sputters and shudders to a halt. What the hell? Gennarino’s worst nightmare is also hers. Again and again, he pulls the starter rope. But the motor will not spark and fire. The boat drifts. Use the oars, row me over! That is her command. But there are no oars. The motor was not supposed to fail. You fool! You didn’t put enough petrol in it! How can peasants be expected to think ahead? It’s all your fault! Yes, he did everything wrong. He must have. What other explanation is there? He’s the cause of all her troubles now.The sun is relentless. The pull of its gravity spins the earth. Earth has no say in the matter. Night must follow day because it is ordained. The sun decrees it, the fire in the sky master of all, the source of all life. But it sticks to its own agenda and we are helpless to prevent it. Dusk arrives. Night falls. Get out the flares or whistle an alarm! There are no such things in the boat. At least give me a torch! But there is no torch to give. Then give me your jacket, I’m getting cold. He does as told. Incredibly, she must spend a night in an open boat with an uncouth peasant from the South. Who would have thought such a thing? Why do absurdities like this happen? My girlfriends will laugh when they hear of it. Or maybe I’ll say nothing of it. Yes, that’s better. Why hold myself up to potential ridicule? But it is curious: Why me?Dawn breaks. Both have shivered through the night, especially Gennarino, clad only in navy slacks and a T-shirt. Where are they at sea? They don’t know. Throughout the night they continued to drift. No yacht in sight, no island either. Where on earth are they? Will the motor start? No, it won’t? Try again! Raffaella curses. So does Gennarino. They are castaways, destination and destiny unknown.Days pass. Two or three. They are hungry, sunburned, cold, frightened. Where is the yacht, and why haven’t they come looking for us? How long must this nightmare go on?On the horizon something changes. Out of the flat sea an object protrudes. What is it? They drift toward it, carried by the waves. It gradually looms larger. Land! But what land? They must reach it, find out, find help, signal for other help.They arrive, reach sand and shore. They’re exhausted, lie momentarily on the beach, at once glad yet confused. The island has saved them. But which island? Where are they?On this side of the island there is no civilisation. The towns or villages must be on the other side. They climb a local peak to get a bird’s eye view of the place. No sign of humanity, none of its marks. Strange. An uninhabited island somewhere in the Mediterranean. It’s not possible. But in the movies everything is possible.They are stranded. Truly alone. The man is Adam, the woman Eve, their place of abode paradise, a garden unspoiled. Beauty surrounds them. Also, abundant nature. Birds in the air, fish in the sea, other creatures to catch on land or from the water. Here they can live and find nourishment till help arrives. It will be rough and primitive but they can do it, especially Gennarino. He is used to hardship, real pain and toil. For Raffaella it’s something new, a challenge never dreamt of. How can she possibly survive? Her one-word answer: Gennarino. Suddenly he rises in significance, a man endowed with the survival skills she lacks. Strange how absurd life can be. The last man on earth I want to be with is the one I am with!Raffaella is hopeless and helpless. She can do nothing, not even gather firewood. At first Gennarino accommodates her, stuck in the old ways. He puts up with her bitching and abuse. But as time passes he decides he’s had enough. Why spend these peaceful days with her when he can happily fish on his own or roast crabmeat over a fire and enjoy the spoils all to himself? So he tells her to shove off, or does so himself. He abandons her. At that moment the immensity of everything finally strikes her. She pauses and understands. She will die without him. She needs him to live!So, the expected happens. She chases after him. Gennarino, Gennarino, you’re too fast, wait up! I’m coming. Where are you? Slow down! The epic of the motorboat is now comically reversed. In the boat Gennarino was too slow. Now on land he is too fast. This is the beginning of what we now know is coming in this entertaining fable. The rules of the old world, so rigid and fixed, will not apply here. In this Eden, the world remade or redeemed, they must live by another code and we know who will make it. The rules handed down by heaven became the laws of the patriarchs. Man held power over woman — woman subservient and made to serve. To survive Raffaella must learn this lesson. She must adapt, their new world nothing if not Darwinian. Otherwise she will starve while the new lord — Gennarino — grows fat on the fat of the land.Gennarino, Popeye the sailor man, of course loves the new arrangement. He is king and has a slave. She does his bidding like a dog, carrying objects in her teeth to him on all fours. All quite farcical and amusing, their private world of S&M mirroring the political one they have left behind, the ruling class master, the underclass slave.But breaking her in has taken time. She resisted at first. He had to slap her, kick her around until she got the message and buckled down, understanding the new codes of society. In Eden this is how things are. I speak, you listen. I command, you obey. She learned. He humbled and tamed her. Now she is hit and scolded less, also rewarded for good behaviour, an extra bit of roasted parrot, for insistence, or maybe some tuna from the sea.Her past begins to dissolve. It once had shape, but now feels and looks amorphous. The things that obsessed her there have vanished as if they never were. The chatter and opinions and nonsense of that time have evaporated. Here the sun and stars shine brightly. The waves forever crash along the shore. The birds in the trees sing loudly at daybreak. The water is warm for swimming. They do so half naked or fully bare. The moon rises, a fire is lit. Dinner is roasted in the flames. The wind blows constantly, gently. They build a shelter from old timber found. She learns to sew and stitch their tattered bits of clothing. She learns to cook. She even bathes and massages him at his command. Touching him was once repellent. Now, strangely, it is anything but. In the glow of the campfire he looks radiant, almost god-like. He is strong, resourceful, practical, protective. She has never known a man like this.If he is master, she will be slave. Of course she resisted at first. But enough violence from him tamed her. He hit her when she only professed to see him as master. She was disingenuous, insincere, and he knew it. So he hit her for her sin, her lie. She knew it too, knew she had lied in those moments, knew the punishment was justified, legitimate, realised she should be hit, and so she took it and learned not to complain. Out of this, too, came transformation. A day would come when she would say “master” sincerely, heartily. He would see it in her eyes — those eyes once so cold and condescending, now warm and radiant, especially in the firelight glow at night.He kisses her roughly at first. She is property and he wants stimulation. She is here for his pleasure. Any pleasure she will receive must come through him, her own will and desires subservient to his. She can accept this, and does.But still there is hope. She hasn’t completely forgotten the old world. At the back of her mind she remembers it. A time must come when they will be found and rescued. She clings to this life raft of hope. She cannot fully be his slave, can she?The days pass seamlessly. How many, who can say? But there have been many. Weeks certainly, or even months. At first she scanned the horizon every day, looking for the mast of a ship blown off course. But little by little she forgets to look, taken up by her chores on land — fetching water, sweeping up, chopping greens and herbs and animal meat for the pot. She has become, without hardly thinking about it, a domestic. Meanwhile her man, her master, does all the hunting, trapping, fishing, gutting. He’s good with his hands and doesn’t think twice about dirtying them.A time comes when the lovemaking is no longer rape but a mutuality of giving that might as well be called love. She finds she needs it as much as he. And when he discovers this a transformation comes over him too. Women were objects, always had been. Even his wife, the same. Sex was the male imperative, the thing he took from the woman whether she wanted to give it or not. It never occurred to him that her needs, her sexuality, might be important too. But here in Eden he learns it. Raffaella teaches it to him. Her needs, he discovers, are not separate from his, her pleasures a mirror of his own. The more he loves her, the more she loves in return. Carnal love, but love all the same. Here in this mutuality is true equality. In the old world, too, equality was important in all its categories, economic and political. But it begins here in intimacy, face to face, the man and woman in the arms of each other. With this there is hope, and with hope there is always the possibility of progress.The days and nights become peaceful, idyllic. Their needs are satisfied, their bellies and hearts full. They have everything, want for nothing. The old world has melted away. This one is better. This one is perfect.But they are in Eden after all, and we know how the story goes. There is no apple or snake, but there will be a ship. It will appear as a dot on the horizon that will grow, and we know who will signal it, who must signal it, because we know the story and the Bible so well, the book that laid the foundations of our civilisation. She can’t help herself. She is compelled by fate to do what she must.In that moment the fairy tale ends, their kingdom by the sea no better than a sand castle. The new world must be desecrated. It was too good to be. But while it lasted, it was perfect.All the rest, the conclusion, can be imagined. They are rescued. They are back on the yacht. Raffaella is changed. She is quiet and submissive, humble and obedient. Her husband and all the others attribute this to trauma. Little by little she will return to her old energetic self, they think. Maybe they are right, but we will not see Raffaella to confirm this. In her instead at present we see grief and loss, her face now at its most beautiful — a thing pure, natural and radiant. She has been touched, deeply affected, so we can only wonder how long the power of that experience will linger in her.As for Gennarino, peasant wife and brood in Calabria await. The old routine, ways, assumptions. How can he go back? With pain and grief, the same as Raffaella’s. But with him too we cannot know how long it may linger.There are not enough desert islands in the world for us to achieve equality there. So one lesson of this wonderful political fable is that we must start here in the one world we know, the only one we have.Equality begins in the love and intimacy of home. We carry that love into society, strengthening it with this love. And with such strength we make a better world for more to truly enjoy.

Though in Italian, you cannot deny that this version, the original, is by far the best and funniest! I am so happy I have it now after so many years since I last watched it.

great film, great actors, the DVD was in very good condition as stated, it arrived before the given date and it was a total bargain. I am very happy!

Good movie, reliable seller!

If you like Italian movies, this is a must have.Very funny also very adult and quite dark at times.Beautifully filmed and great locations.

A very sharp, funny and disturbing film about sex, politics and violence.

I want to give this film 5 stars, because it was brilliantly made, but it was extremely disturbing. Absolutely not for children, teenagers or anyone who is sensitive to violence. I don't think a movie like this would be allowed to be shown today, because of certain scenes.(I would rather not go into detail here) Although its probably not disturbing like horror movies. Asides from that its a masterpiece. If you are learning script writing you have to watch this movie. (This is defiantly better than Guy Richy's imitation movie)

La ARROW Uk ha fatto un gran bel Lavoro di RE-MASTERED e il Risultato è una Pelliocola che torna a risplendere nei suoi colori Naturali - I Dati Tecnici riportano un 16.9 in Anamorphic - Audio Stereo 2.0 e la Lingua ITALIANA nonostante sia un Dvd di produzione Inglese - i Sottotitoli sono solo in Inglese (dato l'ottimo Audio i Sottotitoli Italiani sarebbero inutili - tranne che per i NON UDENTI) e i Colori sono in Pal . Che altro Aggiungere ???... NULLA , il Film e davvero un CAPOLAVORO del CINEMA MONDIALE non solo Italiano e la Trama credo sia NOTA a TUTTI quindi GODETEVI LA VISIONE di questo SPLENDIDO DVD che Consiglio Vivamente.... sotto tutti gli Aspetti. (EDDY)

This is the 1973 original Italian version which does NOT star Madonna and is much better, just read the reviews on Imdb. The reviews incorrectly posted above are for the inferior 2002 Madonna version directed by Guy Ritchie. Can someone at amazon please get these two completely different films clearly separated out. I had to contact a reseller to find out which version they are actually selling, and they confirmed it is the 1973 original in Italian with subtitles.

all fine, good copy.

Great movie love the actors very well done a classic.

It is a classic of Italian social comedy of 70s but if you are not italian (or you do not speak a pretty perfect Italian) you should not enjoy it because the subtitles are not good to understand the double meanings of the italian script

good and in time