Shirley MacLaine's performance, interpreting 7 women as different as it can be, is quite breathtaking. The quality of the mini-stories is uneven, some have aged rather badly in my opinion: Funeral Possession, Super Simone and Suicides. Others still provide a real entertainment and great fun: At the opera, Amateur night, and especially the last one, Snow, also starring Michael Caine, with a quite magical and fairy atmosphere. This was clearly the best part!
With so many great talents on screen, I expected a little more from Vittorio de Sica, a director I appreciate very much. Besides MacLaine and Caine, we find indeed a rather exceptional cast with Peter Sellers, Elsa Martinelli, Vittorio Gasman, Anita Ekberg, Philippe Noiret. Unfortunately, the format of 7 vignettes and the rather thin scenarios do not allow these great talents to express themselves as they should.
The movie would have been much better with 3 or 4 mini-stories, not more. De Sica took an evident pleasure in lining up the stars like pearls on a necklace, and Shirley MacLaine obviously enjoyed herself in this collection of roles, dresses and wigs. But the end result is still a bit meager.
This film was for me like an appetizer buffet, pretty to watch, sometimes fun to taste, but in the end you still fell hungry about something more substantial...
