(Lina Wertmüller, 1974, Italy, 115 minutes)

New 4K restoration!

Lina Wertmüller, who in 1977 became the first female filmmaker ever nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards (for Seven Beauties; it would be 17 years before another female appeared in the category again), perhaps made her masterpiece a few years prior with the provocative 1974 sensation Swept Away. In a tangle of class, gender, and sexual politics, the rich and beautiful capitalist Raffaella (frequent Wertmüller star Mariangela Melato) torments her communist sailor Gennarino (world cinema mainstay Giancarlo Giannini) while cruising on a yacht off the coast of Sardinia. Events conspire for the two of them to be trapped alone on a deserted island, at which time role reversals inevitably commence.

In Italian with English subtitles.