to compete for ~ monwealth country if he has lived _ This director's lost her vision Ever since her film, The Seduction of Mimi— a witty look at the -corruption of a_ small-time social climber — appeared here several months ago, progressive filmgoers have hoped for more of the same insight from the camera of the Italian director, Lina Wertmuller. But despite the praise givenher bycritics and despite her own claims to be ‘‘a Marxist,’’ a later effort, Swept Away, indicated she was off on an entirely different track. With her most recent film, Seven Beauties, now showing at the Denman Place she has reached as Lester Cole’s review demonstrates — a dead end. Self-described as a ‘‘socialist and anarchist,’’ Lina Wertmuller seems so emotionally and_in- tellectually involved in her films that it is difficult to separate the individual from her work. In each film she makes such explicit statements about her politics, ideology and philosophy that she seems to be saying,.“‘When you see my films, you see me. I am my work.” A true artist, one is tempted to say. But a closer look tells us otherwise, because the political speeches are completely divorced from the principal characters, the dramatic action and the actual theme. Wertmuller seeks mainly to shock and assault her audience with verbal and visual obscenities, stun with sexual excesses and | Jefe wing ! | By MIKE GIDORA Canadian for two weeks? Consider the spirit of the _ Olympic Games as typified by the announcement that. Stephen Badger will probably be allowed to compete for Canada in the Mon- treal Olympics. ‘I have nothing against Stephen Badger, and for all I know he may be a very likeable person. He is certainly an excellent swimmer. - But there is no way he should represent this country in the 1976 Olympics. Badger’s problem, if you can call ita problem, is that he is one of the three or four best 1500 metre freestyle swimmers in the world, he lives in Winnipeg, and he wants to take part in the Olympic Games. But he is not a.Canadian citizen and therefore is not eligible to represent Canada in Olympic competition. Badger is Australian and was a top performer internationally for Australia in the past. He moved to _ Winnipeg in 1975 after his coach in _ Australia moved to the Manitoba city to accept a job. Originally he intended to try and win a spot on the Australian swimming team, but due to a foul _uphe was left off the team. He then turned his attention to the Canadian swim team and applied - for landed immigrant status in © order to qualify for-this country’s team. The department: of manpower _and immigration denied his ap- plication because they decided to adhere to their own rules “and regulations rather than bow to _ pressures exerted by the Canadian Olympic Association .and_ other sports bodies within Canada. He - appealed the decision, and last week his appeal was denied, again _ despite the enormous pressures applied by the COA. — But it appears that there is an — obscure rule in the International Olympic Committee's book of little ~ used loopholes which will allow him to compete for Canada. A citizen of a member state of the Rritish Commonwealth is eligible another Com- in that country for one year and has not competed for his own country internationally for a period of one year, providing both countries’ Olympic Associations _ agree. Badger meets all those qualifications so he will probably be wearing a Canadian team _uniform in the opening ceremonies in Montreal on July 17. __ That's good for Stephen Badger, but it savs a great deal about the innocent. All he wanted to do was : ompete in the Olympics, and he his a good solid case backing him ii that his . swimming record says te should compete — but not at the expense of developing genuine athletic programs in this country. The one final irony in the whole incident is.that had Stephen Badger come from a_ socialist country and demanded so-called “political asylum"’ in Canada, he: would have been granted it im- mediately, became a landed im- migrant, and would have had no problems in representing this country — such is the spirit of the Olympic Games. oa elderly, violence done to body and spirit. Her films seem aimed in their appeal at alienated ultras, the nihilistic elite and those voyeurs who obviously delight in her uninhibited exhibitionism. What she does is a kind of psychological strip-tease. The many critics who have been seduced by her — and pressured by their advertising departments? — have of course helped develop the cult which has grown around Wertmuller in this country. (Pauline Kael of The New Yorker and Molly Haskell of The Village Voice are notable exceptions.) When I saw the film, the audience made up of press and _ invited guests, were so “‘hyped’’ to an- ticipating Wertmuller’s jokes that when the film opened with stock shots of World War II horrors; death, destruction and film clips of Mussolini and Hitler, accompanied by the singing of a period cabaret song, there was laughter in the audience. They had come prepared. Wertmuller sees men either as idealistic romantics with unat- tainable goals — or as ignorant buffoons: women are either angelic virgins of 14 or slovenly, bitches and grossly overweight whores. It is difficult to find a recognizable human being — there are only clowns, vaudevillians, all in a comic charade of hopelessness and despair. To her chamber of horrors in this film she adds one more — a three hundred pound (more or less) female, a’ murderously sadistic commandant of a Nazi con- centration camp. While in fact no woman ever achieved such high rank among Nazis, permit Wertmuller such dramatic license if her objective were. legitimate. But she seeks not dramatic license — her goal is licentiousness. Perhaps on_ the theory that she received coarse. guffaws when her hero seduced a mountain of female flesh in “Seduction of Mimi,’’ she felt it was worth a repeat. The story as best I could tell, is a jumpily-paced attempt at tragi- farce, an account of the life of one Pasquali, a flashy, vain, small- time racketeer in Naples. He is presented to us as the average man, a kind of Everyman - Italian style. Drafted into the army as an alternative to a long prison sen- tence, he decides after a taste of battle that he wants to live, so with a comrade, he deserts. They’re soon captured and thrown into a concentration camp. The horrors of this existence are intercut with flashbacks showing his life before the war. He is a shallow, preening, ladies’ man, who lives with — and off the ear- ning of — his mother and many fat sisters. This vainglorious oaf, unintelligent and uninformed, decides his honor is at stake when he learns that his oldest — and fattest — sister has become a ‘whore. He finds the pimp, kills him, is convicted of murder, but manages to get to an insane asylum. There he rapes an insane women (fat, of course) who is tied hands and spreadeagled legs to her bed. Caught at this and treated to electric shock, he is then given a transfer to a prison from which, with the war now on, he will be- permitted to enlist in the army. In prison he meets a socialist who has received what amounts to a life sentence, and here Wert- mulier discourses on socialism, fascism and her “hero’s’”’ support of Mussolini’s ‘‘law and order.”’ At the concentration camp there is more politics. We are introduced to one of Pasquali’s companions, kindly, handsomely bearded. He tried to cheer the disconsolate Pasquali who is ap- one could. . devoid LINA WERTMULLER.. palled at the murders in the camp and the deaths in the war by ad- vising him to take the historical - view: all these deaths are -as nothing compared to what is in store for the human race. In 300 years there will be three hundred billion people on the earth, and everyone will be killing everyone for a slice of bread or an apple. When Pasquali seeks to erase that vision by reminding his comrade that Mussolini is bringing order to the world, he is told that order is death; only with ‘‘creative disorder’’ will man achieve freedom. ; At this point Wertmuller has finished her political-philosophical lesson, and as she dispensed with the socialist in one scene, she now does with the anarchist; he takes his own life, drowning himself in a vat of excrement. So much for creative disorder. Pasquali must survive. He recalls advice from his mother when. he was a child: women: can be won with sugar — sweet things, sweet talk. He sets out to seduce the commandant, and by making goo-goo. eyes and humming love songs he gets her attention and an invitation to her office. There we watch him climb this mountain of flesh, a grotesque gyration. He not only survives, he is made a capo of his prison block, but the sadistic mistress now orders him to kill six “of his comrades, for no other ap- parent purpose than ‘to make him suffer. And he does kill them, and’ does suffer. One of those he is forced to shoot is the friend with whom he deserted. Thus, betraying comrades, of ideals, human aspirations, feelings of . a socialist she’s not. brotherhood, Pasquali survivé What is being said in the pre tation of this pathetic roach? see it, Wertmuller is saying - mirthful hatred, ‘Love him, fo | is yourself. Look ‘at the sta innocent eyes, the childish van ‘his love for his mother. Isn’t you?” ° At the end of the film Pasq returns to Naples after the wi There he finds his mother, his” sisters and all their fat wo: friends, and even the fourte year-old virgin for whom he 0 held tender feelings. All become whores. American soldié and sailors are shown as cheerful, harmless despoilers. It’s difficult to speak about quality of the acting, since character is given a chance develop. As Pasquali, Gia gives his least satisfactory formance. He has been directeé imitate Chaplin’s shrugs smirks, to do a Buster Kealé routine with three heavy suitca and to adapt many. Mastroianni’s mannerisms. the exploitation of his expre eyes is endless: closeups of t rolling to heaven, wide stares li calf; soft like a doe, opening closing like clams — all mea convey what Wertmuller . lea’ unsaid. Poor Giannini. The settings are excellent, photography first -rate. The ends..In this most elaborate of productions, -Wertmuller p herself to be less a se dramatist and film-maker tha clever cartoonist, a vaudevil with a bag full of trucks. And a down artist. Once again huma is her victim. — Lester People’s Canada bests Cuba in archery Canada’s men’s and women’s archery teams both claimed victories in last month’s_ in- ternational match with the Cuban teams in Havana. It was the second encounter between the two teams and the more experienced Canadian team, as expected, dominated their hosts in all distances. Despite the overwhelming victory of the Canadian team, in which no Cuban competitor could manage better than a sixth-place finish, both sides saw the com- petition as being extremely beneficial in that it gave the Canadian team an opportunity to hone their skills for the Montreal Olympics and provided the younger Cuban team with much needed international competition. . The two archery meets were part of a continuing sports exchange. program between the two coun- ‘tries leading up to the 1976. Olympics in Montreal. In the past, contest upward of 300 Canadian athle have been in Cuba-at’ one Y taking advantage of that coun facilities and climate for # warm weather winter tral Last year Canada’s nati basketball, volleyball and soc teams spent three weeks in C' and competitors in wrest boxing, gymnastics, and track @ field have also trained there various periods of time. The bilateral training prog has produced positive results ° both countries as Canae ‘younger and generally Jess — perienced soccer, volleyball basketball teams have emer} Olympic contenders following training experiences with highly regarded Cuban te Similarly, the Cubans are pecting that their archery will improve — substant following their. exposure — internationally : vanked, a - “squad. -