Sophia Loren, icon of cinema and Italy, is 90
An icon of Italian cinema, Sophia Loren, is turning 90. Born in Rome on September 20, 1934, she spent her childhood in Pozzuoli in poverty. Her mother, prevented by her parents from having a career in Hollywood, poured all her ambitions into her daughter Sofia. She brought her back to Rome where she tried her luck at Cinecittà and participated in several beauty contests.
She made her debut in photo stories as Sofia Lazzaro and then worked as a film extra. In 1951, the producer, her future husband, Carlo Ponti noticed her.
From her debut to the Oscar for ‘Two Women’
©Archivio fotografico Cineteca Nazionale
Her first leading role came with Africa sotto i mari by Giovanni Roccardi (1953) alongside Steve Barclay, an international production from Titanus in which she was given the “exotic” stage name Sophia Loren. The 1950s lead her to Hollywood. International recognition came in 1954, with 10 films to her credit, including the memorable L’oro di Napoli by Vittorio De Sica, a film in episodes featuring the performances of Totò, Eduardo De Filippo, Tina Pica and De Sica, among others. It was De Sica who guided her to an Oscar a few years later with Two Women (1960), where she played widowed Cesira who leaves Rome, devastated by bombing, to take refuge in her hometown in Ciociaria, with her teenage daughter.
Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni
Sophia worked with the greatest Italian and international directors: Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica, Dino Risi, Francesco Rosi, Renato Castellani, Mario Monicelli, Alberto Lattuada, Ettore Scola, Lina Wertmüller, Charlie Chaplin, Sidney Lumet, Martin Ritt, George Cukor, Henry Hathaway, Robert Altman, distinguishing herself in both dramatic and light roles. She has acted alongside luminaries such as Marlon Brando, Charlton Heston, Cary Grant, John Wayne, Clark Gable, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Richard Burton, Gregory Peck, Frank Sinatra, William Holden.
©Archivio fotografico Cineteca Nazionale
However, her partnership with Marcello Mastroianni, her cinematographic partner in 14 films and with whom she has made many memorable films, is particularly unforgettable. In Matrimonio all’italiana (1964) De Sica wanted Loren to play Filumena Marturano, Eduardo’s famous heroine: it is impossible for fans not to recognize the iconic piazza del Gesù Nuovo in Naples, overlooked by the building where Domenico Soriano, the impertinent womanizer played by Mastroianni, lives. Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, (Vittorio De Sica, 1963), an Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language film in 1965, entered the history of cinema for the scene of her striptease, accompanied by the howling of a lustful Mastroianni to the tune of Abat jour. In A Special Day (1977), set in a Roman apartment building during Hitler’s visit to the city in 1938, Ettore Scola created the intense roles of an unhappy housewife and a homosexual persecuted by the regime for the two actors.
Sophia and the Walk of Fame
The Oscar, which came in 1962 for best actress in Two Women (she also received one for her career in 1991), is the most prestigious of the countless awards that distinguish her acting career, including Golden Globes, BAFTA, David di Donatello, Coppa Volpi in Venice, etc.. A star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame bears her name.
Her last performance in 2020 in The Life Ahead, directed by her son Edoardo Ponti, earned her the David di Donatello for Best Actress.
Celebrations for Sofia's birthday
Numerous initiatives have been organized to celebrate the first 90 years of the national Sophia: the recently concluded Venice Film Festival celebrated the diva with a screening of the restored version by Cinecittà and Filmauro of L'oro di Napoli (Vittorio De Sica, 1954). A mural depicting the actress in front of her childhood home will be inaugurated on September 20 in front of the house where she grew up in Via Solfatara 5 in Pozzuoli, a few steps from the Flavian Amphitheater. The Campania Region will host a retrospective and special screenings at Palazzo Reale, in Naples, from October 5 to 8.
In addition, on September 20, the Ministry of Culture, Cinecittà and Archivio Luce will pay homage to Sophia Loren with a special, private event at The Space Cinema Moderno in Rome: the most beloved Italian actress of all time will be honored with a prestigious and unprecedented recognition. The award will be presented by the Undersecretary of Culture Lucia Borgonzoni and Chiara Sbarigia, President of Cinecittà.