Love and Anarchy · reception & legacy
1973 · Lina Wertmüller
How Love and Anarchy has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
In the mid-70s Wertmüller was America's arthouse obsession — critics like John Simon hailed her as a genius while Pauline Kael pushed back hard — and Love and Anarchy rode that wave; her stock crashed in the 80s, but restorations and her 2019 honorary Oscar have pulled this one back into the conversation.
What's debated
The eternal Wertmüller fight: is her collision of screaming farce, sex, and deadly serious anti-fascist politics bracing genius or just loud — and this film is Exhibit A for both sides.
Its footprint
It's a prime specimen of the beloved cinephile running joke about Wertmüller's absurdly long titles — the full one begins 'Film of Love and Anarchy, or: This Morning at 10 in Via dei Fiori at the Well-Known House of Tolerance…' — and the Giannini–Melato pairing here became shorthand for 70s Italian cinema's greatest screen duo.
Where it stands
A cornerstone of the Wertmüller–Giannini run that once made her a household name, now a beloved-but-under-seen rediscovery title rather than a default watchlist entry.