L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 4 BARBARA MINAFRA ANDREA TEDESCHI NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS " I am grateful to have received this award, which I didn't expect, and that, for this reason, is even more welcome and makes me all the happier. For sure, the Americans always loved me," she says to news agency Adnkronos shortly after the Acad- emic announcement. Lina Wertmüller, 91 on the 14th of August, will receive an Oscar to the career in 2020. This year at Cannes she got a standing ovation — and an impromptu homage by Leonardo DiCaprio — when a restored ver- sion of her 1977 Seven Beauties was presented. As an incise, the movie had gained her an Oscar nomination, the first for a woman in the history of cinema. And while in Cannes, her daughter did wish Lina could eventually win it: "It would be lovely if she could win an Oscar." The award will be officially presented on the 27th of October, at the 11th Annual Governors Awards, with the following moti- vation: for extraordinarily stand- ing out as a director throughout her career, and for her exceptional contribution to cinema. "I am very happy. I didn't expect it — she stresses once again to Ansa — but I gladly accept it. I dedicate it to my daughter and my husband. And to the actors I consider fun- damental in my career: Marian- gela Melato and Giancarlo Giannini." Giannini, who played Pasqualino in Seven Beauties and who, along with Melato (who passed away in 2013), formed one of the most iconic cinematic duos of the second half of the past cen- tury, also shows great affection and respect for Wertmüller: "she made me. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be here and I wouldn't have done what I did in my career. She's been everything to me." Behind her iconic glasses — rigorously white — Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spanol von Braueich built over 40 years of Italian cinema, using a high yet popular register and a type of irony at once intel- lectual and colloquial, which landed her a David of Donatello (2010), a Globo d'Oro (2009) and a Flaiano (2008), Italy's most prestigious cinema awards. Born in Rome in 1928, from Federico, a lawyer from Palazzo San Gervasio (Potenza) and Roman Maria Santamaria-Maur- izio, Wertmüller joins the Accad- emia Teatrale at 17. She initially works as a theatre director, then moves onto radio and TV, where she works both as a director and Oscar to Lina Wertmüller: the director who gave a feminine accent to Italian cinema Continued to page 6 a familiar image of Lina Wertmüller: pixie haircut and her trademark white glasses @ Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia di Roma Wertmüller in the 1970s @ Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia di Roma

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