L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2023 www.italoamericano.org 6 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS Continued from page 4 Reed's Trapeze, with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, which was a great success. Later, she was a gorgeous and sexy Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Jean Delannoy, along w i t h A n t h o n y Q u i n n a s Q u a s i m o d o ; s h e p l a y e d w i t h F r a n k S i n a t r a a n d Steve McQuinn in Never so Few and performed with Yul Brynner (who took over the role of Tyrone Power, who died while filming) and George Sanders in Solomon and Sheba. M i n d , t h i s i s a v e r y reductive list. In many an interview, s h e r e c a l l e d a n e c d o t e s about her relationship with some of the greatest inter- national movie stars in his- tory, in particular, she often spoke about her friend- ship with Marilyn Mon- r o e , w h o m s h e h a d m e t during the first years of her A m e r i c a n c a r e e r . I n a n interview she gave to the Italian TV show Storie Ital- iane, while showing one of t h e m a n y s c u l p t u r e s s h e dedicated to Monroe, she remembered when they met on the day Marilyn shot the f a m o u s s u b w a y s c e n e f o r The Seven Year Itch (1955): "Our dresses were almost identical: hers was white, mine pink, made of chiffon. Photographers went crazy. The first thing she told me was: 'They call me the Amer- ican Gina Lollobrigida.' I was very touched. She was so very down to earth, so naive, so humble, especially. She wasn't very confident. Then we met again in Holly- w o o d a n d w e b e c a m e friends. I had the opportuni- ty to get to know her better, to appreciate her…but you see…it's a pity she wasn't s t r o n g l i k e I a m . W h o knows, maybe she'd be still a l i v e . S h e w a s v e r y , v e r y fragile. I saw her crying and it hurt me." But La Lollo, in the end, s a i d " n o " t o H o l l y w o o d , even if that meant breaking an exclusive contract, and r e j e c t i n g p r o p o s a l s a n d romantic overtures from bil- lionaire producer Howard H u g h e s w h o , s h e w o u l d eventually reveal, courted her "for twelve years." She p r e f e r r e d t o c o m e b a c k home and bet on commedia all'Italiana and on neoreal- ism, where she embodied figures filled with strength and popular passion, which were to turn her into a true icon of the 20th century. In Italy, she worked with world-renowned directors l i k e D e S i c a , G e r m i , Comencini, and Monicelli. If the first international suc- c e s s c a m e i n 1 9 5 2 w i t h F r e n c h m o v i e F a n f a n l a T u l i p a l o n g s i d e G e r a r d Philipe, she would triumph in Italy one year later, in 1953, with Luigi Comenci- ni's Pane Amore e Fantasia a n d i t s v e r y s u c c e s s f u l s e q u e l , P a n e A m o r e e G e l o s i a . T h e s e a r e t h e m o v i e s w h e r e h e r m o s t famous alias was born: la Bersagliera, the nickname given to exuberant Maria, the love interest of Vittorio De Sica's maresciallo. Speaking of her alleged rivalry with Sophia Loren, G i n a d e c l a r e d i n a 2 0 1 9 i n t e r v i e w w i t h A G I : " A l l those rivalries were invent- ed by others, they were pub- licity stunts. I never looked at other actresses, I focused on myself. Art saved me: I had no mentor, and at the b e g i n n i n g , I d i d n ' t e v e n know what cinema was. My e x p e r i e n c e s h e l p e d m e i m p r o v e . I n m y a c t i n g career, both in Hollywood and in Italy, I always sought true stories to tell and to bring to life, more than I sought famous partners or directors. Money and fame n e v e r r e a l l y m a t t e r e d t o me." In the last few years, she dedicated herself mostly to visual arts, sculpture, and painting, as well as photog- raphy. She had many exhibi- tions around the world and had a book of sketches and drawings published. In 1947, when she walked on a stage for the first time for the Miss Italia competi- t i o n - s h e a r r i v e d t h i r d , behind winner Lucia Bosé - under the heading "aspira- tions" she wrote, in elegant handwriting: " I'd love to do something serious with my abilities." Gina was born in Subbia- co, a small Medieval hamlet in the province of Rome, on the 4th of July 1927, in a family of furniture makers w h o h a d l o s t e v e r y t h i n g during the war. In 1944, she moved to Rome where she e n r o l l e d a t t h e F i n e A r t s Institute. To earn money and pay for her studies, she would draw charcoal carica- tures and became a fotoro- manzi (picture stories that were very popular especially during the 1950s and 1960s) with the pseudonym "Diana Loris." From there, the step t o w o r k a s a n e x t r a o r a s t a n d - i n i n m o v i e s w a s short. She obtained her first small roles in opera movies in the early postwar years and then she continued, all the way to stardom. "I start- ed acting for 1,000 liras a day, to help my family," she once recalled. One of the last awards she received was the David di Donatello in 2016, given to her by President Sergio Mattarella. "Art saved me, and my experiences helped me improve. In my acting career, I always sought true stories to tell and bring to life, more than I sought famous partners or directors. Money and fame never really mattered to me" Gina Lollobrigida in Los Angeles in 2018. She was a true diva (Photo: Featureflash/Dreamstime) Gina in Chicago in 1987 (Photo: Laurence Agron/Dreamstime)

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