Don’t Bring a Gun to a Fistfight

When Lina Wertmüller’s satirical comedies made their appearances in American movie theaters in the 1970s, critics and audiences alike were strongly divided (Bullaro 2006; Wertmüller 2006; Masucci 2009).1 The reception of Pasqualino Settebellezze was particularly controversial: on the one hand, it won the hearts of many and even earned the director four Academy Award nominations, one of which was for best director—an impressive recognition making Wertmüller the first woman to ever be nominated for such a prestigious category.2 Yet the film generated a profound disdain among those who were intolerant of the idea that the atrocities of concentration camps should be so seamlessly woven into the fabric of a filmic genre that accommodated elements of slapstick comedy.3 The concern was that in pairing humor with horror, the film deemphasized the tragedy of the Holocaust and diminished the historical significance of the individual’s plight and the all-too-often unsuccessful quest for survival. The extreme response American critics had to Pasqualino Settebellezze can be attributed to a cultural misunderstanding of Italy’s comedic genre. Scholars such as William and Joan Magretta recognized in this controversial coupling a carnivalesque tradition firmly rooted in the Commedia dell’arte (Magretta and Magretta 1979).4