Sophia Loren (c) HFPA 2003
The Academy Museum presented the retrospective “Sophia Loren: La Diva di Napoli” (November 7-30) to celebrate the 90th birthday of the Italian movie star.
Elisa Leonelli, Sophia Loren (c) HFPA 2003
Included were The Gold of Naples (L’oro di Napoli, 1954) directed by Vittorio DeSica, Too Bad She’s Bad (Peccato che sia una canaglia, 1955) by Alessandro Blasetti, The Sign of Venus (Il segno di Venere 1955) by Dino Risi, Two Women (La ciociara, 1960), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (Ieri, oggi, domani, 1963), and Marriage Italian Style (Matrimonio all’italiana 1964), all three directed by Vittorio De Sica.
Sophia Loren (c) HFPA 1977
I wrote the minibio of Sophia Loren for the Golden Globes website.
For my series of Golden Globe Moments, I featured Sophia Loren with Liza Minnelli at the 1977 ceremony, when she received her fourth special award as World Film Favorite. Click here to see.
For the series “80 years in 80 days” celebrating Golden Globes 80th anniversary, I quoted Sophia Loren in my post about the movie Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1964) directed by Vittorio De Sica and produced by Carlo Ponti, where she co-starred with Marcello Mastroianni. Click here to read.
Sophia Loren (c) HFPA 1994
Through my long career as a film journalist I interviewed Sophia Loren many times, I remember a one-on-one about Grumpier Old Men where she co-starred with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, because we spoke Italian. She was wearing a red dress and sporting a ring with a ruby, an emerald and diamonds, representing the three colors of the Italian flag, white, red and green (bianco, rosso e verde). She claimed to be “very proud of being Italian, because we are wonderful people, full of fantasy and creativity.” As to what Americans like about ltalians, she mentioned “spontaneity, a sense of humor.” She added: “It was the dream of everybody in Italy, not only actors, to come to America and to make it, to really be successful.”
Elisa Leonelli, Sophia Loren © HFPA 2014
Click here for one of my interviews published in the Italian weekly Gioia
Happy birthday Sophia!