In Let's Talk About Men, a film made up of four short tales and a connective story, Lina Wertmuller talks about anarchy, love, seduction, beauty. And men, although the drive of this film—and of most of her films—is provided by its women. (p. 47)

Let's Talk About Men is a disappointment. Only the last story, with some notion of applying camera movement and mise-en-scène to theme, looks ahead to the sleek styling of later Wertmuller. The stories are all set-bound, talky and roughly edited…. The last story in the film is evidence that Wertmuller's talent needs only the shaping of experience.

Seen in retrospect, this early film remains one of Wertmuller's most pessimistic expressions of her consistently warring individuals, played out with little hope of appeasement or understanding on a grid of sex, politics, tradition, and economics. Unlike in the later films, the lines of good...