Yesterday, Loren, Tomorrow

“When I think back on my life, I’m surprised that it’s actually all true. One morning, I’ll wake up and find out that it’s all just a dream. Not that it was always easy. There were hard times. But it was definitely wonderful and worthwhile.” So reads a paragraph in the biography of the Italian actress par excellence, Sofia Villani Scicolone, alias Sophia Loren.

This summer she is back on set directed by her son Edoardo in The Life Before Us, based on the novel of the same name by Romain Gary and scheduled for release in the spring of 2020. In this film she plays a Jewish woman and Auschwitz survivor who takes care of a marginalised black child abandoned by his prostitute mother.

In 1999 she was placed at number 21 in the American Film Institute’s rankings of the greatest stars in the history of cinema and no other Italian actress has ever achieved such a solid and long-standing international popularity. She boasts an impressive number of awards, including two Oscars, five Golden Globes, a Coppa Volpi from Venice, a Palme d’Or from Cannes, ten David di Donatello, the Golden Bear and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Sophia’s story begins with the resolve of her mother Romilda who, due to her own unfulfilled ambitions – she should have flown to Hollywood as Greta Garbo’s double, but her family would not allow it - and to put food on the table, paraded her daughter in beauty contests, eventually dragging her from Pozzuoli to Rome to try her luck in the world of cinema. She was sixteen when she took part in the Miss Italia competition: she didn’t win, but the title of Miss Elegance was created especially for her. After a succession of bit parts, in 1953 she was cast in the film Woman of the Red Sea and baptised by the producer Goffredo Lombardo with the stage name which everyone knows her by: Sophia Loren.

At the age of 23 she moved to Hollywood where she shared the set with Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Richard Burton, Marlon Brando and Cary Grant, with whom she later admitted to having a fling. Her talent as an actress was finally recognised in 1960 with her big break, Two Women, directed by Vittorio De Sica and based on the novel La Ciociara by Alberto Moravia, for which she was bestowed, for her interpretation of Cesira, the first Academy Award for Best Actress awarded for a non-English language performance. Her duets with Marcello Mastroianni are a piece of Italian cinematic history.

A meeting with the film producer Carlo Ponti marks a turning point in Loren’s life, both professionally and personally. “Carlo gave me and taught me everything. I am the person who I am thanks to him” she has said. At the time they met, Carlo was married with two children and their story is certainly audacious: they married secretly in Mexico and, in order to escape the pending bigamy charge in Italy, transferred their citizenship to France. When divorce became legalised, they took this route and were officially married in Sèvres in 1966. With Carlo, she went on to have two sons, Carlo Jr. and Edoardo, and they remained together until his death in 2007.

Published on Claudia Chiari's Blog