Trailblazing Italian filmmaker Lina Wertmüller’s dark comedy SWEPT AWAY… BY AN UNUSUAL DESTINY IN THE BLUE SEA OF AUGUST, starring Mariangela Melato and Giancarlo Giannini, will run in a new 4K restoration from Friday, January 31 to Thursday, February 6 at Film Forum.

Set against the backdrop of the beautiful Mediterranean, SWEPT AWAY is Lina Wertmüller’s most famous and controversial film about sex, love and politics. On an elegant yacht cruising off the coast of Sardinia, Raffaella (Melato), a beautiful, haughty bourgeoise, enjoys tormenting Gennarino (Giannini), a Communist sailor. Fate weaves a different scenario and roles become reversed when the two find themselves stranded together on a deserted island.

Raffaella must submit to Gennarino in order to survive, which culminates in a dramatic climax when they are rescued. “A parable in which people’s sexual attitudes are governed by economics and class.” — New York Women in Film and Television`

The shifting politics brought about by feminism and increasing social turbulence in Italy in the 1970s presented Wertmüller with two of her richest subjects, as old social structures and attitudes were being challenged and collapsing under the pressures of modernity.

Mentored early in her film career during the golden age of Italian cinema by Federico Fellini, she was the first woman ever nominated for an Oscar in directing for SEVEN BEAUTIES in 1975. Wertmüller crafted a filmography of provocative, genre-defying work–such as THE SEDUCTION OF MIMI (1972), LOVE AND ANARCHY (1973), and ALL SCREWED UP (1976)–which established her as one of the most original directors of the 1970s breaking through to international audiences and earning critical acclaim.