Sophia Loren, the great symbol of Italian cinema, turns 90

“What are you going for?”for example, where she is one of the slaves of Deborah Kerr. In one of those contests there was a man shorter than her and older than her father: the producer Carlo Pontiwho saw in her something more than just a pretty figure. He saw that she had the makings of an actress. He advised her, took her under his wing, made her act in comedies and also dramas, and little by little he became a kind of father, and husband. When the latter happened, they had to face together the gossip of half the world, because he was already married and at that time there was no divorce in Italy.

Then another curse would come, the difficulty in having children. When the first one was finally born (she had two) the paparazzi crowded the Aula Magna of the model clinic to take photos of the mother presenting her baby. It no longer mattered that she was an illegitimate daughter, the wife of a bigamist, nobody called her Villanimother’s surname, or Scicolonefather’s surname, because she was already Sophia Lorenthe goddess that everyone loved, the national pride, for her career in Italy, Hollywood and Europe, and also for her spectacular figure –all natural, no surgery, silicone or other tricks that were not yet used, nor would the public have accepted.

Beauty was not “a little bit of importance”as she said. It was a lot. But the talent to make people fall in love and laugh, and suddenly make a tremendous drama out of war, “Two women”And then to become a businesswoman, to maintain her prestige and her presence for years and years, that talent was even greater. And the tenacity, of course, to study her papers, her accounts, to raise her children, to endure, as an adult, a few days in prison for an unjust accusation and to argue, also for years, until they recognized the injustice, that is something not everyone has.

Another man, also older than his father, supported his career: the actor and director Vittorio De Sicateacher. With him he acted in “It’s a pity you’re such a scoundrel”, “The beautiful miller” and other amusements, and under his direction he made “The gold of Naples” (restored for the Venice Film Festival), “Two women” (Oscar, Palme d’Or at Cannes and other international awards for Best Actress), “The raffle” (episode of “Boccaccio 70”), “The Damned of Altona”on text by Jean-Paul Sartre, “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”, “Italian Wedding”, “Sunflowers of Russia”all with Marcello Mastroianniand “The Journey”with Richard Burton.

And with other directors, “Aida”, “A day in court”, “The joy of being a woman”, “Pride and passion”, “Black orchid”, “Desire under the elms”, “I will see you in my arms”, “The bay of dreams”, “His sin was to play”, “El Cid”, “Arabesque”, “The Countess of Hong Kong”, “Brief encounter”, “The four-star white”, “Love, death, tarantella and wine”, “Ready-to-wear”the list goes on.

What directors, Lattuada, Steno, Blasetti, Risi, Bolognini, Negulesco, Hathaway, Stanley Kramer, Stanley Donen, Carol Reed, Charles Chaplin, Lumet, Shavelson, Cukor, Litvak, Monicelli, Altman, Lina Wertmuller, three times. And what partners, Alberto Sordi, Anthony Quinn, Charles Boyer, Yves Montand, Alan Ladd, Cary Grant, John Wayne, William Holden, Anthony Perkins, Clark Gable, Maurice Chevalier, Charlton Heston, Maximilian Schell, Gregory Peck, Paul Newman, Marlon Brando, Omar Sharif, Vittorio Gassman, Adriano Celentano, Jean Gabin, Richard Harris, James Coburn, Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmonthe cream of the crop.

And above all of them, Marcello Mastroianniand the big one Ettore Scola leading them in a melancholic drama set in times of Mussolini, “A very special day”where a worn-out housewife chats for the first time with an attentive, understanding neighbor, who will be taken away that same day by the regime, convicted of being homosexual. Ironies of life: Sophia Loren’s younger sister was briefly the wife of the musician Romano Mussoliniyoungest son of the fascist leader.

The daughter of both, Alessandra Mussoliniappears as one of the girls in the film. Today she is a doctor, an actress, singer, model, MP, and the first woman to lead a political party in Italy: the far-right Forza Italia (nobody is perfect).

A local detail: “the Loren” He came to Buenos Aires in 1992 and 1994, summoned by Susana Gimenezwas also in other programs, and in 1997 in the Mar del Plata Film Festival, where she presented a film with Philippe Noiret. It wasn’t bad, but just then some impressive fireworks started on the beach and, to her dismay, many people left the room to watch them. She left the next day, and we didn’t see her again.