Italian motion-picture director and screenwriter noted for her comedies focusing on the eternal battle of the sexes and on contemporary political and social issues.

Wertmüller graduated from the Academy of Theatre in Rome in 1951 and then held various jobs as a puppeteer, actress, stage manager, and writer. After working as an assistant to the director Federico Fellini in 1962, she was able to write and direct her first film, I basilischi (The Lizards), in 1963. At about this time she became friends with the actor Giancarlo Giannini, who would star in most of her subsequent films.

Wertmüller achieved international fame with her fifth film, Mimi metallurgico ferito nell'onore (1972; variously entitled The Seduction of Mimi or Mimi the Metalworker, Wounded in Honour), a satire on sexual hypocrisy and changing social mores. Her next picture was Film d'amore e d'anarchia . . . (1973; Love and Anarchy), about an anarchist torn between his plot to assassinate Benito Mussolini and his love for a prostitute who has given him shelter in a Rome brothel. Wertmüller's two finest films are Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare d'agosto (1974; Swept Away), a witty comedy in which a poor sailor establishes his dominance over a haughty rich woman while they are marooned on a deserted island; and Pasqualino settebellezze (1976; Seven Beauties), a film about an Italian dandy who must betray all moral values while trying to survive World War II and his internment in a Nazi death camp.

Wertmüller's subsequent films were critical and commercial disappointments, but her reputation was secure on the basis of her earlier films.