The next two segments are similarly thin plot devices. Maria Theresa (MacLaine) finds her husband with another woman and decides to find a man on the street to be unfaithful with, even if she has to be a prostitute for a night. It's a bit shaky in its exposition but manages a few laughs. Then, as Linda, we see rather a great deal of MacLaine as a brainy nudist who leads two horny men to her apartment to discuss art and poetry. Other than getting naked (in ways that shield her from us if not the guys), Linda doesn't make much with the time given her, and the sequence limps to a wet, predictable conclusion. Woman Times Seven ( Italian: Sette volte donna) is a 1967 sex comedy anthology film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It consists of seven segments, all starring Shirley MacLaine, most of which deal with aspects of adultery.

However, the reason I call this review "woman minus six", is that the movie is completely redeemed by the seventh and final story, called "Snow". A simple story, the most beautifully photographed in the streets of Paris, shows two best friends, Maclaine and Anita Ekberg on a shopping day, being pursued by what they believe to be a young smitten wannabe lover. In sweet simple scenes you follow the "suitor", (played with elegant grace by Michael Caine… and without one word of dialogue!) as he seems to pursue these two women. When they decide to split up after lunch to see which one he truly is after (although Ekberg does say: "Maybe he wants us both, he could be one of those moderns) Maclaine. to her joy, finds that he continues to follower her. Variety wrote: " Woman Times Seven means a seven-segment showcase for the talents of Shirley MacLaine, playing in tragicomedy and dramatic fashion a variety of femme types. MacLaine is spotted in many different adult situations, and largely convinces with each switcheroo." [7] Box office [ edit ]

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There are two types of movies that came out of the 1960s: strange, experimental films and lusciously colored films that made later generations ask, "Were the sixties really like that?" Woman Times Seven is a mixture of both, which would be a reason to watch it, if you're interested in different types of classic films. The movie has beautiful costumes, lavish colors, and oddly 60s music; and at the same time, it's strange and experimental. Seven completely unrelated short stories—each about infidelity—are played out, all starring Shirley MacLaine! She really is darling, so if you want to see her in various wigs and furs, and with beautiful expressions from heavily made up eyes, you won't want to miss this one. But then the makers would argue it was intended as a joke, which is scuppered in that it doesn't make you laugh. You could see why MacLaine and all her famous co-stars wanted to work with De Sica, as even at this stage he had some clout in the international arena, but it was only she who was offered very much interesting to do as the others barely registered. You go, hey, it's Michael Caine, but then he doesn't get any lines, or go, hey, it's Alan Arkin, but then the subject of a joint suicide comes up in his section and you don't feel much like giggling. Elsewhere, former Tarzan Lex Barker was a pretentious writer concocting a ludicrous fiction about his ideal woman who a dowdy Shirley wishes to live up to, making herself silly in the process, again, there's a germ of an intriguing notion but it's underdeveloped when there's barely ten to fifteen minutes to do it justice. Only the anecdote that Lord Lucan apparently auditioned for a role has Woman Times Seven remembered much today, but if you wanted to see what pseud trendsetters considered sophisticated in 1967, here it was. Music by Riz Ortolani. The last three sequences are the heart of the film's charm and lasting power, each comedic in different ways, each giving MacLaine worthwhile characters to play. Eve is the rich consort of a captain of industry, so bent on making a big splash at the opera in a new gown that she arranges for a bomb to go off in the car of a fashion rival. Her husband is suitably aghast. The concepts of adultery in the film have a European flavor. For example, Vittorio Gassman's character reminds Clinton Greyn's character that divorce is, at the time of filming, impossible for an Italian.

Eve, a fashion diva, is horrified when her arch-rival Mme Lisiere is photographed in what her husband had promised was an exclusive creation for her alone. The article mentions that Mme Lisiere intends to debut the dress at the opera that night. Eve calls Mme Lisiere and asks she alter the dress in some small way, a request which Mme Lisiere denies. You have never taken a risk for me, ever!" she whines at him. It's a fun, farcical dig at high finance and haute couture that makes its pointed digs with gentle good humor. Shirley MacLaine's performance, interpreting 7 women as different as it can be, is quite breathtaking. The quality of the mini-stories is uneven, some have aged rather badly in my opinion: Funeral Possession, Super Simone and Suicides. Others still provide a real entertainment and great fun: At the opera, Amateur night, and especially the last one, Snow, also starring Michael Caine, with a quite magical and fairy atmosphere. This was clearly the best part! Other than MacLaine, the common elements in the film are the score, the Paris setting, and a common thread of romantic hopes found wanting. The subtitle mentions "7 Stories Of Adultery," which is more than a bit of exaggeration.

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She goes home to her husband Victor and gives him the drill. She looks out of the window; her admirer is sitting in the snow on a bench in the park. The man phones the flat from a call box and has an odd conversation with Victor, then walks off, leaving only his footprints. The film was shot in Paris. Wardrobe was supplied by Pierre Cardin, jewelry by Van Cleef & Arpels, furs by Henri Stern and hairdressing by Louis Alexandre Raimon. Eve makes a grand entrance at the Palais Garnier. Her glory reaches a peak when the audience stand and gaze at her in her box; this moment is ruined when another, older woman, comes into her own box wearing the same dress. Devastated, Eve runs out of the box crying. While sobbing on the stairs, her sorrow is allayed when she sees Mme Lisiere arriving, her version of the dress in tatters from the bomb blast.