7 Days - 7 Women: Maria Sole Tognazzi

On Day 2 of our week-long series, 7 Days - 7 Women, in which we are profiling seven strong, talented women working as filmmakers, writers or visual artists, we take a look at the career of film director, Maria Sole Tognazzi.

Born in 1971, Tognazzi is no stranger to the entertainment industry. Her father is the legendary comedy actor, Ugo Tognazzi, who was one of the most prominent players in the Commedia all'Italiana genre of Italian cinema. Maria Sole Tognazzi is the youngest of four children and took a slightly different path than her siblings. Unlike her brothers, Gianmarco and Ricky, who are both successful actors in Italy, Maria prefers to stay behind the camera.

She started her career by working as an assistant director, and made a series of video clips that poised her for the debut of her first short film in the late 90's, Non finisce qui. Her follow up to that film, C'ero anch'io set the foundation for her first feature-length film, the ensemble comedy, Passato prossimo. The cast boasts some pretty big names including her brother, Gianmarco along with now-A-listers, Paola Cortellesi, Valentina Cervi, Pierfrancesco Favino and Claudio Santamaria.

In 2008, she worked with Pierfrancesco Favino once again on the romance-drama, L'uomo che ama (The Man Who Loves). The unique plot in this movie is how it shows love and loss from the point of view of a man. The man was being left and dealing with heartbreak, when so often we see the woman in this role. The film opened the 2008 Rome Film Festival and also opened to rave reviews in New York City at Lincoln Center's annual Italian film series, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema.

In 2010, her documentary Ritratto di mio padre (Portrait of My Father) premiered at the Rome Film Festival. Among many unique elements, the documentary features home videos showing an adoring family and their beloved patriarch, with accounts by her siblings and close friends of the family. Appropriately titled, Tognazzi, really does present a beautiful, loving portrait of her father.

Click here to watch the trailer for "Ritratto di mio padre"

Margherita Buy in a scene from Viaggio sola

Her third feature film, Viaggio sola stars leading lady, Margherita Buy as Irene, a hotel professional and single 40-something who makes her living inspecting luxury hotels. Irene is surrounded by luxury, and comes and goes as she pleases, but all of her experiences are had alone. It is a story of courage and independence, presenting the positive and negative side of living an independent life, not giving in to the stereotypical expectations of society.

Comments

The Timeless Talent of Stefania Sandrelli

On screen since the tender age of 14, she has captivated audiences for more than 50 years with a compelling combination of strength and vulnerability. She achieved stardom at just 14 years old playing the angelic cousin of a love-struck Marcello Mastroianni in Pietro Germi’s “Divorce Italian Style.” More than half a century later, she is still going strong and remains one of Italy’s most esteemed actors. Stefania Sandrelli was born on June 5, 1946, in Viareggio in the province of Lucca in northern Italy. As a child, she studied music and dance. Then in 1960, she won a beauty pageant and was featured on the cover of Le Ore magazine. Her purity captivated the country and shortly thereafter, movie offers began pouring in. Just one year later, she made her cinema debut in three feature films: Mario Sequi’s Gioventù di notte , Luciano Salce’s The Fascist, and Pietro Germi’s Divorce Italian Style . She instantly became a star and before long was a key figure in Italy’s legendary

Anna Foglietta: Actress and Activist with Old School Elegance

One look at actress Anna Foglietta in her any of her roles, and the Golden Age of Italian cinema comes to mind. Among Italy’s most sought-after actresses today, Foglietta brings to the table a classic eloquence of yesterday while representing Italy’s modern woman. Born in Rome in 1979, Foglietta began her career in 2005 with a role in the RAI television series La squadra . Her character Agent Anna De Luca had a two-year run on the series as she was transitioning to cinema with Paolo Virzì’s 2006 ensemble project 4-4-2- Il gioco più bello del mondo . Since then, she has become one of Italy’s most diverse actresses, transforming herself into interesting, layered characters for comedies and dramas alike. Aside from a small part in Anton Corbijn’s 2010 film The American starring George Clooney, Foglietta’s work began reaching mainstream American audiences in 2015. As Elisa in Edoardo Leo’s 2015 comedy Noi e la Giulia , Foglietta showed her funny side playing a goofball pregn

New faces of Italian cinema

Angelo Iannelli With the 2012 film festivals just about wrapped up, we saw a big emphasis this year on newly emerging and independent filmmakers. This was most notable in the Venice Film Festival's Horizon's program, which gave these filmmakers an unprecedented amount of visibility as the program reached out to people all over the world via the internet. To mark this current trend, I recently caught up with two independent filmmakers in Rome: Angelo Iannelli and Vito Napolitano. Each filmmaker has experience on both sides of the camera. Their origins are based in the south of Italy but they are now living in Rome. Angelo Iannelli was born in Benevento in the region of Campania, while Vito Napolitano is from Lecce in Puglia. What I enjoyed the most about our conversation is the passion with which the two young filmmakers speak about cinema. They are so enthusiastic and about their craft, they reel you right into their dreams. The three of us recently met up at the Li

"Cinema saved my life" - A Portrait of Claudia Cardinale

Update May 9, 2016 It's just been announced that Claudia Cardinale will present her latest film, "All Roads Lead to Rome" in Niagara Falls, Canada on June 18, 2016 at the Niagara Integrated Film Festival connecting with Canada's annual Italian Contemporary Italian Film Festival . In these times of reality television, internet streaming and 15 minutes of fame, there are few legends living among us. Actress Claudia Cardinale is one of those few. A truly unique and special person, Cardinale was born in Tunisia in 1938 to Sicilian parents. Her maternal grandparents were originally from the Sicilian island of Trapani, but settled in La Goulette, Tunisia, where there was a large Italian community. Her early life seems something of a fairytale but success brought its share of problems. As a young girl, Cardinale attended elementary school in the ancient city of Carthage. Her first cinematic experience came when she participated in the making of a short film with her

The Sweetness and Genius of Giulietta Masina

Fellini and Masina on the set of "La Strada" As open-hearted and sunny as Federico Fellini was dark and complex, they were perfect counterpoints during a half-century of marriage and professional collaboration. Nicknamed a “female Chaplin” and described by Chaplin himself as the actress who moved him most, Giulietta Masina confronted the tragedy of her characters with an eternal innocence and enthusiasm that gave Italians hope in the most challenging of times. Born in 1921 in San Giorgio di Piano, a commune north of Bologna, Masina was the oldest of four children born to a father who was a music professor and violinist and a mother who was a grade-school teacher. Her parents sent her as a child to live in Rome with her widowed aunt while she attended school there. As Masina took an early interest in gymnastics, her aunt saw in her a passion for performing and encouraged her to pursue acting. So after high school, Masina attended Rome’s La Sapienza Universit

Italian Cinema Today

Search This Blog