She was born Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmueller von Elgg Spanol von Braueichjob in Rome to an aristocratic Swiss family. Apparently rejecting her parents’ wishes to study law, Wertmueller instead went to drama school where she acted, wrote and directed plays. After graduating from Rome’s Theatre Academy, she toured Europe with Maria Signorelli’s puppet troupe.
In 1963, Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, the husband of a schoolfriend, introduced Wertmueller to Federico Fellini, who asked her to be his assistant on “8½.” Wertmueller later said Fellini proved to be her greatest influence.
“It’s illuminating to be close to him, because you are close to a character who’s so profoundly nonconformist, who runs with himself like a child with a kite,” she said.
That same year, with Fellini’s encouragement, Wertmueller went to Sicily to make “The Lizards,” her first feature film. It was favorably received but the director herself criticized it as being “too rarefied,” too difficult for people to understand. She wanted to make films for the masses.
Wertmueller’s series of hits began with the “Seduction of Mimi” (1972), whose title was abbreviated from “Mimi the Metal Worker Wounded in his Honor” — Wertmueller told the AP that long titles amused her. The New Yorker called it “a wonderfully funny sexual farce” and Time magazine named it one of the year’s 10 best films. Other box-office success included “Love and Anarchy” (1973), “Swept Away” (1974) and “Seven Beauties” (1976), which earned her one Oscar nomination for directing, one for best original screenplay and another for her leading man, Giancarlo Giannini.
