Gina Lollobrigida, lady label

With a loving soul and not really loved, La Lollo lays on January 16 the keys to her heart on the tomb of those who qualify her as a sex symbol, “consume” her and flee her by erecting her as a trophy exhibited in the aftermath of relationships more or less long, tumultuous. She mocks them at 95 beautiful years, leaves sensual and does not intend to reconnect with this world that glorifies her and then bury her alive. She who suffered, as a pre-teen, the pangs of a life she did not choose. At the start of the Great War in 1939, she was 12 years old and realized at the start of her fame: “I know what it means to be hungry. I know what it’s like to lose your home. I remember what it’s like to be afraid.

I know what growing up means, not the name of the toys. Gina later attended the School of Fine Arts in Rome with the ulterior motive of becoming a sculptor. In the process, she chose Diana Loris as her nom de guerre by posing for photo novels that were very popular in her Italian region. Spotted by the legendary film studio Cinecitta, she receives an audition offer. Lollobrigida is hesitant: “I refused when I was offered my first role. I was told they would pay a thousand liras. I declared my prize to be one million lira, thinking that would put an end to it all. But they said yes! The young actress landed her first major role in 1952 in “Fanfan la Tulipe” by French filmmaker Christian-Jaque. In 1953, she appeared in “Shame the Devil” alongside Humphrey Bogart. The following year, she played Esmeralda in the adaptation of “Notre Dame” by Victor Hugo.

The portrait of Lollobrigida is, in this momentum, the cover of the American magazine Time. Summits and nirvana in apotheosis! Gina is then called upon to compete with her compatriot Sophia Loren.

Fidel Castro, the documentary and the rumor

At the end of 1953, the specialized French magazine, Les Cahiers du Cinéma, attested: “Those who have seen La Provinciale by Mario Soldati, adaptation of the eponymous novel by Alberto Moravia, now know that Gina has an obvious and sensual talent as an actress. She then won, for “Bread, Love and Dreams”, the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award for best foreign actress. Other trophies follow thanks to her performances in “The most beautiful woman in the world”, “Venus Imperial” and “Good evening, Mrs. Campbell”. At the dawn of the 1970s, Lollobrigida moved away from the world of cinema. She is dying to rediscover the world of sculpture: “I have always preferred sculpture. I gave myself to the cinema and I don’t regret it, but when the cinema changed, I decided to rediscover my passion, ”she reassures herself.

In the 1970s, Gina Lollobrigida took photos professionally. In 1973 she published her first book “Italia Mia”. Until 1994, she released six books with her own photographs. In 1975, Lollobrigida made a documentary about Fidel Castro: “We spent 12 days together. He did not interest me as a political leader, but as a person. He realized that I wasn’t coming to attack him, and he easily accepted me,” she recalled years later. After the screening of the lm at the Berlin Film Festival, rumors circulate about a supposed relationship between the beauty and the bearded man.

In Essaouira, she wants to recover her rights

In 1992, Gina was invited by Moroccan producer Abdou Achouba to Essaouira on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Palme d’Or awarded to Orson Welles for the lm “Othello” competing under the Moroccan banner, partly shot in the city of winds three years earlier and in which the royal adviser André Azoulay landed a role as an extra from the top of his nine springs.

But Lollobrigida is apparently there for a completely different reason: “Paola Mori [épouse italienne d’Orson et mère de Beatrice Welles présente à Essaouira pour la commémoration] and I were very good friends, ever since we were both extras, that’s how Paola met Orson… Orson shot a portrait of me for television, and of Rome through me. This tribute documentary was stolen by a waiter at the Hotel Ritz in Cannes. Now that the affairs of Orson’s heirs are clearer, I have come to obtain from Beatrice the recovery of my rights to this film. »

And here is the job! Gina ends up retiring to a villa near Rome, going sporadically to a residence in Tuscany where she has a studio. One of the first to react to her death was her close rival in the 1950s and 1960s, Sophia Loren. She declares to be very shocked and saddened by the disappearance of Lollobrigida. Gina later recounts that “the confrontation between us had been invented by Loren’s agents and that she herself was not going to argue with anyone. Obviously, I’m number one. They are certainly, at the time, on edge.