Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781572522459
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 1572522453
Label: Fox Lorber
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Fox Lorber
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 31, 1998
Running Time: 89 minutes
Sales Rank: 76510
Studio: Fox Lorber
Theatrical Release Date: 1972
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
This 1972 film by Lina Wertmuller (Seven Beauties, Swept Away) is a wild farce of the Sicilian milieu. Mimi (who is a man) is forced to leave his hometown when he can no longer get work as a result of voting against the local strong arms in a 'secret' ballot. In the big city he finds work, but also finds that life there is very much as corrupt as it was at home. He falls in love and has a child by his lover, and when forced to take a job in his hometown again, he must hide his lover and their son from his wife. When he is too tired to please his wife in bed after making love all day to his lover, she becomes pregnant by another man, setting off a chain of events that ultimately lead to a public revenge scene that possibly has no rival. What's even more amazing is that the film manages to portray a complex protagonist in a searing comedy. A must-see, especially if you'd like a lighter view of the same world portrayed in The Godfather. --James McGrath
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - The Seduction of Mimi
This broad, clever satire on male hypocrisy and social convention is priceless, if you love the mournful comic countenance of actor Giannini, as I do. His Mimi is an artful creation, an ignorant, impetuous, bumbling fool you can't help but love. The machinations he undergoes to get back at his spouse will amaze and amuse. Don't miss the scene when the fat lady disrobes- it's deservedly the stuff of cinematic legend.
Rating: - Conjugal Codes and Double Standards
The theme of this story is the prideful narcissism that leads a self-serving, dissatisfied laborer to create overwhelming obligations he cannot control in the context of social corruption and uncertain employment.
This story is culturally valuable because it depicts part of the life of one man in a very universal manner. Mimi is every man: he lusts, he is jealous, he is vulnerable, he wants job security, he has morals and he sometimes compromises them. At the same time, however, Mimi's predicaments are presented in such an exaggerated, humorous manner that they provide relief from the audience's own frustrations. On a more particular level, this film reveals the impact that the "mafia" had on Italian society at this time. Yet, even this is done in so humorous a way as to never seem upsetting. The bitterness of the events that take place--the loss of love, humiliation and misuse of women, the loss of value and the buckling of Mimi to corrupt social powers--are given to an audience with enough comical sugar to allow it to go down easily. And although women are shown objectified and humiliated in this society, the men who do it are shown to be victims of their own absurdities and social traditions as well. This film both exemplifies the dangers of being narcissistic and acting rashly on jealousy and desire, and provides comic relief for a world plagued with problems.
Rating:  - Mimi or Not Mimi?
After purchasing this DVD, and loving it, I still have a disturbing question: is this the same theatrical release version, which, according to Wertmuller, was criminally cut by New Line Cinema (the original distributor) by up to forty minutes? Do I have to go to Italy to find out?
Rating: - Fantastic Classic
Highlly recommen
Rating: - Comical Satire worth 10 points
A man that wants everything, and ends up with nothing. Mimi, the laborer, is seduced into working for the Mafia - which he hates and fears - to pay for his extramarital affairs.
A well made film of high caliber. Thoroughly enjoyable and remarkably light hearted for an otherwise somber topic. A must for the serious movie buff.
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