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A snooty socialite is stranded on a Mediterranean island with a communist sailor. A snooty socialite is stranded on a Mediterranean island with a communist sailor. A snooty socialite is stranded on a Mediterranean island with a communist sailor.

• Guy Ritchie
• Lina Wertmüller
• Adriano Giannini
• Bruce Greenwood
• 249 User reviews
• 60 Critic reviews
• 18 Metascore
• 8 wins & 8 nominations

Top cast 17

• Crew Member

• (as George Yiasoumi)
• Burly Captain

• Tony's Assistant
• Receptionist
• (uncredited)
• Lina Wertmüller (1974 screenplay Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto) (uncredited)
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia When the studio screened Swept Away (2002) for Lina Wertmüller , the director of the original film, it is alleged that she left the theatre at the end crying out: "What did they do to my movie? Why [did] they do this?"
• Goofs The wine bottle changes as Amber does charades.

[complaining to her husband]

Amber : I did not fly all the way from New York City to wherever the fuck we are to get on that!

Tony : How many vacations have you enjoyed? You wanted to try something new.

Amber : New? Tell me, how new does that look? It's got a fucking chimney, Anthony!

• Connections Featured in Siskel & Ebert: The Worst Films of 2002 (2003)
• Soundtracks Come-On-a-My-House Written by Ross Bagdasarian and William Saroyan Published by Armen Bagdasarian (ASCAP) Used by kind permission of Universal/MCA Music for World (Ex. USA & Canada) Performed by Della Reese Licensed courtesy of RCA Records and BMG Entertainment International UK & Ireland Ltd.

User reviews 249

• Sep 13, 2003
• How long is Swept Away? Powered by Alexa
• October 11, 2002 (United States)
• United Kingdom
• Columbia Tristar (France)
• Sony Pictures (United States)
• Love, Sex, Drugs & Money
• Alghero, Sassari, Sardinia, Italy
• Screen Gems
• Codi S.p.a.
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $10,000,000 (estimated)
• Oct 13, 2002

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 29 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Swept Away... By an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August

• Wednesday March 20, 2024 2:00 PM

Lina Wertmüller, 1974 R; 116 minutes; Italian with English subtitles

Class warfare hits the high seas in this Italian comedy about Gennarino (Giancarlo Giannini), a long-suffering crew member who works on a rich couple's yacht. The wife, Raffaela (Mariangela Melato), verbally abuses Gennarino and regularly insults his communist views. But when a day trip leaves the pair stranded at sea, they wash up on a deserted island and Raffaela is, suddenly, no longer the one in control. The role reversal leads to an unexpected and contentious love affair.

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Beautiful, interesting, incredible cinema.

On an elegant yacht cruising off the coast of Sardinia, Raffaella, a rich and stunning capitalist, enjoys tormenting Gennarino, a Communist sailor. Fate weaves a different scenario and roles become reversed when the two find themselves stranded together on a deserted island.

Infamously remade by Madonna and then-husband Guy Richie, Swept Away is a tenacious fiction of sex and politics. Legitimately hilarious and unapologetically abrasive in its mystifying viewpoints on class warfare and misogyny, this is Lina Wertmüller’s most appealing and entertaining film.

Cast & Crew

Giancarlo Giannini

Gennarino Carunchio

Mariangela Melato

Raffaella Pavone Lanzetti

Riccardo Salvino

Pavone Lanzetti

Isa Danieli

Aldo Puglisi

• Average 7.4

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'Swept Away' Is a Wertmuller Film With Solid Appeal

By Vincent Canby

• Sept. 18, 1975

Summer. A blue Mediterranean seascape seen through sunlit mist. In the distance a handsome white yawl moves with the light breeze. On the soundtrack we hear some jazzy instrumental music that recalls the score of every Italian film about the sweet life you've ever seen, but there's a point to it in the film. It pollutes air that once was as pure as it looked.As the camera nears the yacht, the music gives way to the bickering of the yacht's well-heeled passengers. The mood that from a distance had seemed so serene turns suddenly, abrasively indolent—and furiously funny. People who have nothing to do, no visible responsibility to anything except tan skin, angrily debate capitalism, Communism, consumerism, the role of the Vatican in Italian life, while complaining about a crewman's smelly T-shirt.This is the beginning of Lina Wertmuller's most entertaining new Italian comedy, "Swept Away (By an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August),f" which opened yesterday at the Cinema II Theater."Swept Away" is Miss Wertmuller's fourth film to be released in this country. It follows "The Lizards," which was shown in New York several years ago as part of a Festival of Women's Films, "Love and Anarchy" and "The Seduction of Mimi," and it's played by the two actors, Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato, who were so remarkable in the latter two films. It's also by far the lightest, most successful fusion of Miss Wertmuller's two favorite themes, sex and politics, which are here so thoroughly and so successfully tangled that they become a single subject, like two people in love.The shape of the film is as artificial as a fairy tale or a cartoon strip. Raffaella (Miss Melato), the rich, beautiful, acid-tongued Milanese who has chartered the yacht, and Gennarino (Giannini), the swarthy Sicilian deckhand whose T-shirts offend her, are marooned for several weeks on the only Mediterranean island not yet occupied by German tourists. They are Popeye and Olive Oyl locked in passionate combat.The way Gennarino folds his pants and shirt—quickly, neatly, according to careful training that has become habit, you know he is a man who believes all things have their place, including women, who belong in the house with the children. Raffaella is an intelligent, selfish, superficially liberated slob who has never picked up anything in her life if there was an outside chance someone else would pick it up for her.He is a Communist with the dedication of a first-century Christian. She is a capitalist because, for her, the system has paid off. More important, he is a man and she is a woman, for which there is hell to pay on both sides."Swept Away" is the story of their tumultuous, slapstick courtship, his systematic humiliation of her (as she sees it) until, suddenly, she submits to her love for him and becomes in the process truly liberated. Feminists, I suspect, will debate a number of plot points as if Miss Wertmuller had set out to write a treatise and not to make a love story, some of whose meanings are not easily translated into feminist agitprop.More easily apparent are the director-writer's concerns about the Italian society that bred these two people and turned them into the mixed-up, wrong-headed characters they are, capable occasionally of unexpected, if imperfect nobility. Her sympathies appear to be more with Gennarino than Raffaella, but that's a matter of politics, not sex, and he is, on the surface, a male chauvinist pig of a classic type."Swept Away" is less a film about ideas than about previous commitments, for which neither character can be held completely accountable. The enormous appeal of the comedy has to do with the way, briefly, each character, is able to overcome those commitments.It also has to do with the performances of Mr. Giannini and Miss Melato, who tear into their roles with a single-minded intensity that manages to be both hugely comic and believable, even in the most outrageous of situations. They are the best things to happen to Italian comedy since Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren squared off in the nineteen-sixties.

The CastSWEPT AWAY (BY AN UNUSUAL DESTINY IN THE BLUE SEA OF AUGUST), directed by Lina Wertmuller; screenplay (Italian with English subtitles) by Miss Wertmuller; produced by Romano Cardarelli; cameramen, Giulio Battiferri, Giuseppe Fornari and Stefano Ricciotti; music, Piero Piccioni; a production of Medusa Films; distributed by Cinema V. Running time: 116 minutes. At the Cinema 11 Theater, Third Avenue near 60th Street. This film has been rated R.Gennarino . . . . . Giancarlo GianniniRaffaella . . . . . Mariangela Melato

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Swept Away AKA Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August (Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzuro mare d'agosto)

Swept Away 's story is as simple and vivid as a folk tale, or a dirty joke. Cruising the Mediterranean on her yacht, a beautiful, haughty bourgeoise (Melato) flaunts her disdain for her hulking Communist manservant (Giannini). Once they are shipwrecked on a deserted island, however, the tables turn with a vengeance. While Swept Away is often read as a wicked subversion of feminism, Wertmüller has explained that gender is simply a symbol in a fable not about the war between the sexes, but about the war between the classes. Paired by Wertmüller for the third time, Melato and Giannini spark beautifully in this anarchic, and anarchist, updating of The Taming of the Shrew .

Part of film series

The Disorder of Things A Lina Wertmüller Retrospective

Screenings from this program june 2008, friday 20 june, the seduction of mimi / the lizards.

Saturday 21 June

Seven beauties aka pasqualino seven-beauties.

Sunday 22 June

Love and anarchy aka at 10 o'clock this morning on the via dei fiori in a well-known bordello.

Night Full of Rain AKA The End of the World in Our Usual Bed in a Night Full of Rain

Sotto Sotto

Monday 23 June

Swept away aka swept away by an unusual destiny in the blue sea of august.

All Screwed Up AKA Everything's OK but Nothing Works

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Watch Swept Away

• 1 hr 29 min
• 3.6   (17,725)

Swept Away is a romantic comedy-drama film that was released in 2002. Directed by Guy Ritchie, the movie stars Madonna, Adriano Giannini, and Bruce Greenwood. The plot of Swept Away revolves around Amber Leighton (Madonna), a wealthy and entitled socialite who goes on a luxurious yacht trip with her husband, Tony (Bruce Greenwood), and a group of their affluent friends. Amber takes pleasure in ordering around the yacht crew, particularly the handsome Italian sailor, Giuseppe (Adriano Giannini), whom she treats with disdain and disrespect.

During the trip, the yacht is hit by a sudden storm, causing Amber and Giuseppe to be stranded on a deserted island with nothing but each other's company. At first, Amber is horrified by the situation and is convinced that she will never be rescued. She demands that Giuseppe cater to her every whim and need, but he refuses to be her servant.

As time passes, Amber and Giuseppe begin to bond and develop an unexpected connection. Amber realizes that the roles have been reversed, and now she is the one who needs Giuseppe's help and guidance to survive on the island. Though they are from different worlds and have different values, they find themselves drawn to each other.

The movie explores the themes of class and social status, as well as the power dynamics between men and women. Amber's experience on the island forces her to confront her own privilege and prejudices, and she begins to see Giuseppe in a different light. The film cleverly subverts the traditional "opposites attract" trope by showing that Amber and Giuseppe's differences ultimately deepen their connection rather than drive them apart.

The chemistry between Madonna and Giannini is palpable, and their performances are a highlight of the movie. Madonna delivers a strong performance as Amber, portraying her as both insufferable and vulnerable. Giannini is equally impressive as Giuseppe, conveying a quiet strength and depth of character.

The cinematography of Swept Away is stunning, with beautiful shots of the yacht and the island setting. The film also features an excellent soundtrack, with Madonna's music prominently featured.

Overall, Swept Away is a charming and entertaining film that offers a fresh take on the classic romantic comedy formula. It is a touching story of two people from vastly different backgrounds who find love and acceptance in unexpected circumstances.

Swept Away is a 2002 comedy with a runtime of 1 hour and 29 minutes. It has received poor reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 3.6 and a MetaScore of 18.

• Genres Comedy Romance
• Cast Madonna Adriano Giannini Bruce Greenwood
• Director Guy Ritchie
• Release Date 2002
• MPAA Rating R
• Runtime 1 hr 29 min
• Language French
• IMDB Rating 3.6   (17,725)
• Metascore 18

“Swept Away” is a deserted island movie during which I desperately wished the characters had chosen one movie to take along if they were stranded on a deserted island, and were showing it to us instead of this one.

The movie is a relatively faithful remake of an incomparably superior 1974 movie with the lovely title, “ Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August .” The new “Swept Away” knows the words but not the music. It strands two unattractive characters, one bitchy, one moronic, on an island where neither they, nor we, have anyone else to look at or listen to. It’s harder for them than it is for us, because they have to go through the motions of an erotic attraction that seems to have become an impossibility the moment the roles were cast.

Madonna stars as Amber, the spoiled rich wife of a patient and long-suffering millionaire. They join two other couples in a cruise on a private yacht from Greece to Italy. The other five passengers recede into unwritten, even unthought-about roles, while Amber picks on Giuseppe ( Adriano Giannini ), the bearded deckhand. She has decided he is stupid and rude, and insults him mercilessly. So it was in the earlier film, but in this version Amber carries her behavior beyond all reason, until even the rudest and bitchiest rich woman imaginable would have called it a day.

Amber orders Giuseppe to take her out in the dinghy. He demurs: It looks like a storm. She insists. They run out of gas and begin to drift. She insults him some more, and when he succeeds after great effort in catching a fish for them to eat, she throws it overboard. Later she succeeds in putting a hole in the dinghy during a struggle for the flare gun. They drift at sea until they wash up on a deserted island, where the tables are turned and now it is Giuseppe who has the upper hand. Her husband’s wealth is now no longer a factor, but his survival skills are priceless.

All of this is similar to the 1974 movie, even the business of the fish thrown overboard. What is utterly missing is any juice or life in the characters. Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato became stars on the basis of the original “Swept Away,” which was written and directed by Lina Wertmuller , one of the most successful Italian directors of the 1970s. She was a leftist but not a feminist, and aroused some controversy with a story where it turned out the rich woman liked being ordered around and slapped a little–liked it so much she encouraged the sailor to experiment with practices he could not even pronounce.

This new “Swept Away” is more sentimental, I’m afraid, and the two castaways fall into a more conventional form of love. I didn’t believe it for a moment. They have nothing in common, but worse still, neither one has any conversation. They don’t say a single interesting thing. That they have sex because they are stranded on the island I can believe. That they are not sleeping in separate caves by the time they are rescued I do not.

The problem with the Madonna character is that she starts out so hateful that she can never really turn it around. We dislike her intensely and thoroughly, and when she gets to the island we don’t believe she had learned a lesson, or turned nice–we believe she is behaving with this man as she does with all men, in the way best designed to get her what she wants. As for the sailor, does he really love her, as he says in that demeaning and pitiful speech toward the end of the film? What is there to love? They shared some interesting times together, but their minds never met.

The ending is particularly unsatisfactory, depending as it does on contrived irony that avoids all of the emotional issues on the table. If I have come this far with these two drips, and sailed with them, and been shipwrecked with them, and listened to their tiresome conversations, I demand that they arrive at some conclusion more rewarding than a misunderstanding based upon a misdelivered letter. This story was about something when Wertmuller directed it, but now it’s not about anything at all. It’s lost the politics and the social observation and become just another situation romance about a couple of saps stuck in an inarticulate screenplay.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

• Jeanne Tripplehorn as Marina
• Madonna as Amber
• Patrizio Rispo as Burly Captain
• Elizabeth Banks as Debi
• Adriano Giannini as Giuseppe

Written and Directed by

• Guy Ritchie

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