Woman Times Seven
Encyclopedia
Woman Times Seven is a 1967
Italian/French/American co-production anthology film
of seven different episodes, all starring Shirley MacLaine
with most based on aspects of adultery
. Filmed in Paris
, the wardrobe was done by Pierre Cardin
, jewellery
by Van Cleef & Arpels
, furs by Henri Stern, and hairdressing by Louis Alexandre Raimon
.
). Vittorio DeSica has a cameo as one of the mourners.
) in bed with her best friend, a shocked wife vows to have sex with the first man she sees as revenge. She meets a flourish of strumpets who help her accomplish her goal.
) and an Italian (Vittorio Gassman
) are invited to the room of a translator who reads T.S. Elliot in the nude. Linda has a photo of her lover (Marlon Brando
) on a table.
) has been photographed in what her husband (Patrick Wymark
) had promised was an exclusive creation for her alone. When asking her archrival not to wear it encourages her to do the opposite, the research and development head of her husband's fashion house suggests planting a bomb in her archrival's car. Louis Alexandre Raimon
has a cameo as himself.
) who is only interested in his fictional female creation, Simone, a neglected wife turns her visions of her as Simone into reality. Her shocked husband invites a psychiatrist
(Robert Morley
) to dinner to examine her for mental illness, but the husband, guest, and housekeeper (Jessie Robins
) insist that the guest is a lawyer.
) however is afraid of pills, doesn't want to mess up his tuxedo
by jumping out the window, and doesn't trust Marie to use his father's pistol on him in case she only wounds him or kills him and changes her mind.
) who appears to be following them. Claudie (Anita Ekberg
) suggests the two leave the restaurant and go their separate ways to see which one of them he follows. As Paris is hit by a sudden blizzard, Jeanne realises that the man if following her.
, producer Arthur Cohn
and Vittorio DeSica working together. As Levine and DeSica had a critical and financial success with the films Marriage Italian-Style
and Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Levine asked DeSica for a similar type film. DeSica's collaborator Cesare Zavattini
had some sketch
es laying about that they turned into the movie. The first choice for the lead, Natalie Wood
turned the film down.
The concepts of adultery in the film have a European flavor. In the film, Vittorio Gassman reminds Clinton Greyn that divorce was, at the time of filming, impossible for an Italian.
1967 in film
The year 1967 in film involved some significant events. It is widely considered as one of the most ground-breaking years in film.-Events:* December 26 - The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour airs on British television....
Italian/French/American co-production anthology film
Anthology film
An anthology film is a feature film consisting of several different short films, often tied together by only a single theme, premise, or brief interlocking event . Sometimes each one is directed by a different director...
of seven different episodes, all starring Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine
Shirley MacLaine is an American film and theater actress, singer, dancer, activist and author, well-known for her beliefs in new age spirituality and reincarnation. She has written a large number of autobiographical works, many dealing with her spiritual beliefs as well as her Hollywood career...
with most based on aspects of adultery
Adultery
Adultery is sexual infidelity to one's spouse, and is a form of extramarital sex. It originally referred only to sex between a woman who was married and a person other than her spouse. Even in cases of separation from one's spouse, an extramarital affair is still considered adultery.Adultery is...
. Filmed in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the wardrobe was done by Pierre Cardin
Pierre Cardin
Pierre Cardin Cardin was known for his avant-garde style and his Space Age designs. He prefers geometric shapes and motifs, often ignoring the female form. He advanced into unisex fashions, sometimes experimental, and not always practical...
, jewellery
Jewellery
Jewellery or jewelry is a form of personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, and bracelets.With some exceptions, such as medical alert bracelets or military dog tags, jewellery normally differs from other items of personal adornment in that it has no other purpose than to...
by Van Cleef & Arpels
Van Cleef & Arpels
Van Cleef & Arpels is a French jewellery, watch, and perfume company that was founded in 1896 by Charles Arpels and Alfred Van Cleef. They opened their first boutique in 1906 at 22 place Vendôme, Paris...
, furs by Henri Stern, and hairdressing by Louis Alexandre Raimon
Louis Alexandre Raimon
Louis Alexandre Raimon , better known as Alexandre de Paris, was a famous French hairdresser . He was responsible for creating Elizabeth Taylor's coiffure in the 1963 Hollywood epic Cleopatra . He also styled Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn and Lauren Bacall, among others...
.
Paulette/Funeral Procession
Leading a walking funeral procession behind the hearse containing the remains of her late husband, a widow is propositioned by her family doctor (Peter SellersPeter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
). Vittorio DeSica has a cameo as one of the mourners.
Maria Teresa/Amateur Night
Surprised by her husband (Rossano BrazziRossano Brazzi
-Biography:Brazzi was born in Bologna to Adelmo and Maria Brazzi. He attended San Marco University in Florence, Italy, where he was raised from the age of four...
) in bed with her best friend, a shocked wife vows to have sex with the first man she sees as revenge. She meets a flourish of strumpets who help her accomplish her goal.
Linda/Two Against One
A Scotsman (Clinton GreynClinton Greyn
Clinton Greyn is a Welsh-born actor noted for his appearances in British television series of the 1960s and 1970s.He made his film debut in the 1961 short Wings of Death, and went onto appear in such popular British TV series as Z-Cars and Compact...
) and an Italian (Vittorio Gassman
Vittorio Gassman
Vittorio Gassman Knight Grand Cross OMRI , popularly known as Il Mattatore, was an Italian theatre and film actor and director...
) are invited to the room of a translator who reads T.S. Elliot in the nude. Linda has a photo of her lover (Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
) on a table.
Eve/At the Opera
A fashion queen is horrified when her archrival Mme Lisari (Adrienne CorriAdrienne Corri
Adrienne Corri is an actress of Italian parentage.She is probably best known for her role as the rape victim Mrs. Alexander in the 1971 Stanley Kubrick film A Clockwork Orange, and for her appearances as Valerie in Jean Renoir's The River and as Lara's mother in David Lean's Dr. Zhivago...
) has been photographed in what her husband (Patrick Wymark
Patrick Wymark
Patrick Wymark , was a British, stage, film and television actor.-Early life:Born Patrick Carl Cheeseman in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, England...
) had promised was an exclusive creation for her alone. When asking her archrival not to wear it encourages her to do the opposite, the research and development head of her husband's fashion house suggests planting a bomb in her archrival's car. Louis Alexandre Raimon
Louis Alexandre Raimon
Louis Alexandre Raimon , better known as Alexandre de Paris, was a famous French hairdresser . He was responsible for creating Elizabeth Taylor's coiffure in the 1963 Hollywood epic Cleopatra . He also styled Greta Garbo, Audrey Hepburn and Lauren Bacall, among others...
has a cameo as himself.
Edith/Super Simone
Ignored by her bestselling author husband (Lex BarkerLex Barker
Lex Barker was an American actor best known for playing Tarzan of the Apes and leading characters from Karl May's novels.-Early life:...
) who is only interested in his fictional female creation, Simone, a neglected wife turns her visions of her as Simone into reality. Her shocked husband invites a psychiatrist
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders. All psychiatrists are trained in diagnostic evaluation and in psychotherapy...
(Robert Morley
Robert Morley
Robert Adolph Wilton Morley, CBE was an English actor who, often in supporting roles, was usually cast as a pompous English gentleman representing the Establishment...
) to dinner to examine her for mental illness, but the husband, guest, and housekeeper (Jessie Robins
Jessie Robins
Jessie Robins was an English actress whose career lasted from 1958 to 1969. She was best recognised as Ringo Starr's "Auntie Jessie" In The Beatles' made for television movie "Magical Mystery Tour."-Work:...
) insist that the guest is a lawyer.
Marie/Suicides
Two lovers, feeling rejected by the world decide on committing suicide in their small room dressed for the wedding they will never have. Fred (Alan ArkinAlan Arkin
Alan Wolf Arkin is an American actor, director, musician and singer. He is known for starring in such films as Wait Until Dark, The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Catch-22, The In-Laws, Edward Scissorhands, Glengarry Glen Ross, Marley & Me, and...
) however is afraid of pills, doesn't want to mess up his tuxedo
Tuxedo
A tuxedo is a type of semi-formal dress for men.Tuxedo may also refer to:-Places:Canada* Tuxedo, Winnipeg, Manitoba, a city neighborhood** Tuxedo , a provincial electoral district in Manitoba...
by jumping out the window, and doesn't trust Marie to use his father's pistol on him in case she only wounds him or kills him and changes her mind.
Jeanne/Snow
Two friends meet for lunch on a winter afternoon. They notice a handsome, but seedy looking man (Michael CaineMichael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
) who appears to be following them. Claudie (Anita Ekberg
Anita Ekberg
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg is a Swedish model, actress and cult sex symbol. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita which features the legendary scene of her cavorting in Trevi Fountain alongside Marcello Mastroianni.-Biography:Ekberg was born in...
) suggests the two leave the restaurant and go their separate ways to see which one of them he follows. As Paris is hit by a sudden blizzard, Jeanne realises that the man if following her.
Production
Woman Times Seven was the first of a projected three films with Joseph E. LevineJoseph E. Levine
Joseph E. Levine was an American film producer.He was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His Embassy Pictures Corporation was an independent studio and distributor responsible for such films as Hercules , The Carpetbaggers, Harlow, The Graduate, A Bridge Too Far and The Lion in Winter.Levine is famous...
, producer Arthur Cohn
Arthur Cohn
Arthur Cohn is a film producer.Six of his films have won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, and he was awarded the Guardian of Zion Award in 2004...
and Vittorio DeSica working together. As Levine and DeSica had a critical and financial success with the films Marriage Italian-Style
Marriage Italian-Style
Marriage Italian-Style is a 1964 film which tells the story of a successful businessman who kept a woman as his mistress for several years and now plans to marry another woman until his mistress pretends to be on her deathbed to induce him to marry her before she dies...
and Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Levine asked DeSica for a similar type film. DeSica's collaborator Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini
Cesare Zavattini was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the Neorealist movement in Italian cinema.-Brief biography:...
had some sketch
Sketch story
A sketch story, or sketch, is a piece of writing that is generally shorter than a short story, and contains very little, if any, plot. The term was most popularly-used in the late nineteenth century. As a literary work, it is also often referred to simply as the sketch.-Style:A sketch is mainly...
es laying about that they turned into the movie. The first choice for the lead, Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
turned the film down.
The concepts of adultery in the film have a European flavor. In the film, Vittorio Gassman reminds Clinton Greyn that divorce was, at the time of filming, impossible for an Italian.