Lina Wertmüller (born Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spanol von Braueich on 14 August 1928) is an Italian film writer and director of aristocratic Swiss descent. In 1976, she became the first woman ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing with Seven Beauties. She is recognizable by her trademark short hair and white-framed sunglasses, a look she has retained since the mid 1960s.
Lina Wertmüller was born in Rome to a d...
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Lina Wertmüller (born Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spanol von Braueich on 14 August 1928) is an Italian film writer and director of aristocratic Swiss descent. In 1976, she became the first woman ever to be nominated for an Academy Award for Directing with Seven Beauties. She is recognizable by her trademark short hair and white-framed sunglasses, a look she has retained since the mid 1960s.
Lina Wertmüller was born in Rome to a devoutly Roman Catholic family of Swiss descent. She was rebellious as a child and was expelled from more than a dozen Catholic schools. Although her father wanted her to become a lawyer she instead enrolled in theatre school.
After she graduated from school her first job was touring Europe in a puppet show. For the next ten years she worked as an actress, director and playwright in legitimate theater. During this period she met Giancarlo Giannini who would later star in all her major films.
Through her acquaintance with the Mastroianni she met...
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