Happy birthday to the magnificent Sophia Loren, 88 candles for a timeless diva. An actress who is an ambassador of Italianness and beauty in the world; one of the divas most loved by the public who boasts a very long career of over seventy years. You are the protagonist of films that have marked an era with the direction of directors and the participation of actors who have made the history of cinema in the twentieth century and beyond. The divine Loren in her dazzling career has won 2 Oscars, 5 Golden Globes, 1 Golden Lion, 1 Grammy Award, the Coppa Volpi in Venice, the Prix Interpretation Feminine in Cannes. And, again, the Golden Bear in Berlin, a Bafta, 10 David di Donatello and 3 Silver Ribbons that make it the most awarded Italian actress in the world.
Sophia Loren
Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone was born in Rome on 20 September 1934 by Romilda Villani, piano teacher, and by Riccardo Mario Claudio Scicolone, businessman in the real estate sector. The father recognizes the paternity of the child, but refuses to marry Romilda, who alone takes care of the education of her daughter. She is noticed very young at a beauty contest by Carlo Ponti, who then becomes her husband by proxy in Mexico in 1957. Ponti himself offers her the first contract and advises her to use a stage name: Sofia Lazzaro before and Sophia Loren then.
It is with this name that he shoots the first successful films alongside Alberto Sordi, interpreting 'Cleopatra' and that of her double in Mario Mattoli's 'Two nights with Cleopatra' in 1953. The following year it was the turn of 'The gold of Naples', episodic film directed and starring Vittorio De Sica with Totò, Silvana Mangano and Eduardo De Filippo e 'Misery and nobility', adaptation of the work by Vincenzo Scarpetta, alongside Totò. With De Sica he shoots a total of 8 films, often paired with Mastroianni, constituting one of the most famous and enduring partnerships in the history of cinema.
Bread, love and ...
The first iconic interpretation is in 'Pane, amore e…' from 1955, again paired with De Sica. In Dino Risi's film, fourth highest grossing of '55 / '56, Loren is a fishwife who tries to seduce Marshal Carotenuto (De Sica). In everyone's memory remains the scene of the mambo danced by Loren and De Sica. The 60s represent the worldwide consecration to a film diva. In Hollywood she actually got there in the second half of the 50s by playing alongside Cary Grant, John Wayne and Anthony Quinn.
For 'Black Orchid', a 1958 film with Grant, he won his first David di Donatello , Coppa Volpi to Venice. At just 26 years old he is already the icon of Italian cinema in the world, but it is in 1961 that the role of his life arrives. In 1960, directed once again by De Sica, she took on the role of Cesira in 'The ciociara'of the novel of the same name by Moravia. A perfect interpretation, which is worth it the Oscar for best actress, the first assigned to an interpreter of a film not in English. In addition to the prize he won in 1962, he took home the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the Bafta, the David di Donatello and the Silver Ribbon with the same film. The TEAM dedicates the cover of the April issue of the same year to her.
The Oscars
In 1991 comes theLifetime Achievement Oscar; the next year it is Sophia Loren who presents the Oscar for best foreign film to Roberto Benigni, director of "Life is Beautiful". And, again, in 2001 the Neapolitan actress (several times she proudly repeated "I am not Italian, I am Neapolitan") returns to TV with the television dramas "Francesca e Nunziata" by Lina Wertmuller; and “The land of the return” (2004), with Sabrina Ferilli.
In 2009, after several years of absence on the set, she is called by Rob Marshall to play the main character's mother in 'Nine', Rob Marshall's homage to Federico Fellini's '8 e mezzo'. He does not miss anything, in fact in 2011 for the first time in his career he doubled the animated film Disney-Pixar Cars 2, where she plays the role of Mother Mickey. Her last interpretation of her dates back to 2020 when she is the protagonist of 'Life ahead ', directed by his son Edoardo Ponti.
(Photo Sophia Loren Official / archivi italiani.it)
