FILM: Swept Away (1974)

The problem of social class is continually on my mind. Lina Wertmuller gives it a fun send-up in this over-the-top allegorical fable, in which a Sicilian yacht hand, marooned on a deserted island with the insufferably snippy rich woman who chartered his boat, finds himself with the advantage in survival skills and can gleefully subjugate her, to the point that she even falls for him. The movie is far from subtle or politically correct, but judged on its own terms it's romantic and poignant. I was blown away by the scene that ends with the line "You've got a long way to go before you can know Gennarino Carunchio!" With its twist from delicious earthy tension into glorious idealism (the highest of hopes aren't just for the elite!), it felt like one of the great scenes of movie history. Another perfect scene, the one with the line "There's no vulgarity in love," depicts the impasse between the tenderness we feel for a lover and the concessions we are still unwilling to make.