Despite the abundant political activity in her films, Lina Wertmuller seems to have little regard for politics. In fact, she seems to dislike it altogether. In Love and Anarchy, for instance, neither of the two main characters has any political consciousness even though both are zealous Anarchists….

[Whether] you see any political import in Wertmuller's films all depends on how the term "politics" is defined. You can't help wondering whether she isn't, like so many imaginative, self-assertive women these days, in the process of redefining it. When Mimi attacks Fiore sexually [in The Seduction of Mimi], his actions seem to parallel those of the rightwingers who attacked her a few scenes earlier on ideological grounds. We feel at least implicitly that she is involved in a more political struggle than she realizes—the old battle of the sexes transformed into a war of liberation. If the love life...