Swept Away Image

Swept Away

By Michael Talbot-Haynes | February 4, 2025

One particular exchange is so iconic that you can imagine audience members repeating the emblematic line over and over again as they left the theater. And once you see Swept Away, you will become part of the secret club that has seen the scene and can greet each other by repeating the forbidden words and knowing the context.

Trust me, you will know which part when you get there. It is hot, disco inferno hot.

On the surface, Swept Away is a movie plastered with politics, which was true at the time that it was made. However, five decades of political evolution and the fall of the second world have changed the picture drastically.

First off, the modern stateside viewer will be baffled by ’70s-era Italian politics, especially in the opening scene where the right-winger is complaining about environmental concerns and the left-winger is telling her to just shut up and not worry about overpopulation and pollution.

Soon, all the politics is revealed as peeling wallpaper covering simple class struggle, with haves versus have-nots, and how situations can reverse sides.

The new 4K restoration is beyond beautiful, with bright colors constantly popping over the mouthwatering visual compositions. Let’s pause and pay tribute to the gorgeous island locations that all the f*****g takes place on.

“…truly an amazing movie that is still as potent at 50 years old as it was back in the day.”

Also, the performances are as powerful as ever. Melato is a genius actress who knows how to completely humanize a character that is essentially a foil for a screwball comedy. She plays it as loud and piercing as a skyscraper rising but also makes the gradual breakdown of defenses very believable.

The debate over whether she is truly subservient or a calculated power bottom is only one of many interesting discussions this film generates. And she looks phenomenal, with every shot of her pulsating with style.

Giannini’s turn is a little unsettling at first, as he plays it very broad with lots of big-eye gestures. These references to the silent clown era were common in the ’70s but have lost that context since.

Once you get used to it, though, Giannini’s S&M Chaplin is a true tour de force onscreen. His extreme posturing once the power balance shifts accelerates the momentum of the master-and-servant sexual elements.

It also seems to me that no less than The Breakfast Club has an allusion to Swept Away with the scene where Ringwald gives Nelson one of her diamond earrings. This mirrors a key scene where Giannini takes one of Melato’s gold earrings to wear himself as a symbol of their bond.

And to think I would have missed it all.

Swept Away is the kind of art movie that anyone can get a huge kick out of, whether or not old foreign films are your bag. It speaks the universal language of cinema, which is the tongue of a good f*****g movie.

Swept Away (1974)

Directed and Written: Lina Wertmuller

Starring: Mariangela Melato, Giancarlo Giannini, Riccardo Salvino, Isa Danielli, Aldo Puglisi, etc.

Movie score: 10/10

Swept Away Image

"…still as potent at 50 years old as it was back in the day."

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