You are here:

The Profiteer

Name: The Profiteer
Director: Sergio Nasca
Released: 1974
Duration: 100 min

Representation Score

6.6/10

Good

1974

Director

Sergio Nasca

Runtime

100 minutes

Average Rating

No ratings yet

New Showbiz Analysis

Sergio Nasca’s film is a cynical deconstruction of the Italian landed gentry. It replaces traditional morality with a transactional view of human relationships, where power and sex dictate survival. The work effectively critiques religious and family institutions, presenting them as corruptible entities. It uses the character of a mute seminarian to challenge the sanctity of religious life. However, the film remains limited by its lack of racial and LGBTQ+ breadth. It operates primarily within a homogenous ethnic and straight-centered framework typical of 1970s regional cinema.

Watch this, not that →

Category Breakdown

Does The Profiteer have LGBTQ+ representation?

Limited

The film examines social transgressions through an illicit affair. However, it focuses on challenging class and religious norms rather than depicting specific LGBTQ+ identities.

How does The Profiteer portray gender?

Good

Baroness Clotilde serves as a central figure who drives the story within a patriarchal structure. The narrative challenges traditional leadership by showing male landowners as morally bankrupt.

How racially and ethnically diverse is The Profiteer?

Limited

The cast appears ethnically homogeneous within its Mediterranean setting. There is no evidence of racial blending or diverse casting in this regional context.

How does The Profiteer represent religion and culture?

Good

The film critiques traditional Western institutions like the church and family. It portrays these structures as sites of corruption and systemic opportunism.

Does The Profiteer include disability representation?

Fair

Parsifal’s paraplegia is central to the plot's power dynamics. While his condition drives character actions, he remains an active participant in the household's social ecosystem.

Present on Screen

Effective critique of religious and family institutions.
Strong subversion of traditional class and gender hierarchies.
Complex portrayal of ability to act through sexual politics.

Limited or Absent

Lack of racial and ethnic diversity within the cast.
Minimal representation of non-assuming gender matches what was assigned at birth or queer identities.
Risk of using disability primarily as a plot catalyst.

Official Synopsis

In the city of Ostuni in Puglia, the mute seminarian Ercole is designated to be the driver and nurse of Parsifal, the paraplegic son in a rich and sanctimonious family of landowners. Ercole soon becomes the lover of his master's wife, the beautiful Baroness Clotilde. In a familial and social context where only money, sex and power count, everyone tries to take advantage of everyone, but the real saprophyte turns out to be Ercole.

How are these scores produced? →