Skip to main content

Comedic Maestra - Paola Cortellesi

Whether she’s the romantic lead or the evil nun, Paola Cortellesi is one of the most versatile actresses working in Italian cinema today.

Born in Rome in 1973, Cortellesi didn’t waste much time before leaping into show business. At just 13-years-old, she landed her first job as a vocalist for the theme song of the popular RAI TV show, “Indietro tutta!”. A few years later, she enrolled at Rome’s famous Teatro Blu, where she studied the art of acting.
Upon graduating from acting school, Cortellesi launched her professional acting career in television, and before long, her natural talent for comedy emerged. In 2000, she began working on the TV show, Mai dire Gol, created by the trio of TV and radio commentators known as the Gialappa's Band. The show made her famous for her parodies, and throughout the years, she’s had fun impersonating a number of famous Italians, the more recent hilarious parody being the mayor of Milan, the very prolific politician and business woman, Letizia Moratti.

With Raoul Bova in a scene from Riccardo Milani's "Scusate se esisto!"
In 2000, she also made her film debut in Chiedimi se sono felice (Ask me if I’m happy) by the comedy trio, Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo. It quickly became clear her niche was comedy and with each new character, she perfected the role of the quirky girlfriend, beautiful, but always getting into some kind of mischief. For us in the United States, it was Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. One can safely say that in Italy, the equivalent is Paolo Cortellesi and Raoul Bova. The two charmed Italian audiences in 2001 with Massimiliano Bruno’s, Nessuno mi può giudicare (Escort in Love) in which Cortellesi played the role of Alice, an escort that falls in love with one of her clients. Cortellesi won the 2011 David di Donatello for Best Actress for her performance.The comedy duo paired up again in 2014 for the international hit, Scusate se esisto. Although the translation is not exact, the English title is, Do You See Me?. Directed by Cortellesi’s husband, Riccardo Milani, the film was recently shown at the Italian Contemporary Film Festival in Toronto to a packed theater, and was one of Italy’s top comedies last year. Cortellesi and Bova were incredible together as she played the role of an accomplished, international architect returning to Italy to find work. Bova played a flamboyant, handsome gay man, who becomes her best friend. The have great chemistry and impeccable comic timing together. Just like Ryan and Hanks, they are adored for their cat and mouse chase and then enduring moments thereafter. Whether their relationship is love or friendship, the two are a strong big screen couple.

With Rocco Papaleo in a scene from Luca Miniero's "Un boss in salotto"
In following the work of Paolo Cortellesi, I am impressed by many aspects of her career. First and foremost is the diversity of her characters. Many actresses that work in the genre of romantic comedies tend to have one signature character they portray. Even Meg Ryan admitted to this back in her heyday, saying that she was getting tired of that same character and storyline. Cortellesi manages to breathe new life into each role she plays, and in doing so, has inspired writers and directors to create more interesting and complex female characters. The other aspect of Cortellesi that impresses me is her loyal following of fans. She has a die-hard fan club of young women that work tirelessly to promote her work and very latest projects and appearances. They have a strong social media presence, especially on Twitter. While researching for this article, I contacted the group. They responded with wonderful insight about their screen idol, saying that her characters really represent the modern woman. Her characters mirror the contemporary Italian woman as she juggles a family and career while maintaining her beauty and sex appeal. In the case of Cortellesi’s characters, they manage all these challenges with a wicked sense of humor.
Much of Cortellesi’s work is available online, in particular through Amazon. There you will find audio books, music and a few of her films. Chances are good that Scusate se esisto! will be released internationally later this year. Check back here for updates.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

7 Days - 7 Women: Interview with Actress Sabrina Impacciatore

  Photo by Rossella Vetrano On Day 6 of our series, 7 Days - 7 Women, in which we are profiling seven strong, talented women working as filmmakers, writers or visual artists, we talk with actress Sabrina Impacciatore about the diversity of her roles. Whether she's playing a devoted mother trying to protect her child, Jesus Christ's "Veronica" in Mel Gibson's controversial film, "Passion of the Christ" or a young woman coming of age, Impacciatore escapes into the life and mind of each character she takes on, sometimes so deeply that she believes she is actually them.   It's a fine line between reality and fiction, but she treads it carefully and anyone watching her performance benefits from her emotional connection to the character that she becomes. I spoke with Impacciatore at the 2010 Open Roads: New Italian Film series in New York City. We talked about her lifelong dream of becoming an actress. She also gave me some insight into the diff
Post a Comment
Read more

A Conversation with Taylor Taglianetti, Founder of NOIAFT

A new platform has recently been launched that promotes the work of Italian Americans in film and television. The brains behind the initiative is a young, passionate woman who is taking the support that she received early on in her journey and paying it forward. With origins in Basilicata and  Campania , Taylor Taglianetti is a proud Italian American from Brooklyn, New York. She is currently a senior at NYU Tisch School of the Arts, graduating in January 2020. She is majoring in Film and Television and minoring in the Business of Entertainment, Media and Technology.  Taglianetti  aspires to be a feature film producer and bring great stories to the big screen. In addition to running NOIAFT, she is currently a Development Intern with Silver Pictures, the production company that produced the Lethal Weapon and The Matrix series. Last summer, she was a development intern with Maven Pictures, the Academy-Award winning production company behind Still Alice and The Kids Are All Right . 
Post a Comment
Read more

A Conversation With the Man Who Played Pasolini's Christ

There have been countless cinematic interpretations of the books of the Bible, but few have stood the test of time. One that qualifies as a classic is Pier Paolo Pasolini’s 1964 “Il Vangolo secondo Matteo” (The Gospel According to St. Matthew). Considered by the Vatican to be among the best film adaptations of one of the Gospels, Pasolini’s 1964 film was shot in the regions of Calabria, Puglia and Basilicata. In an interview with RAI television while on location in Matera, Pasolini talked about the reasons for shooting there. “I chose two or three places in Basilicata. One is Barile, a town of Albanians. I needed a place for Bethlehem. Another location is Matera because it reminded me of Jerusalem,” he explained. Pasolini’s interpretation of St. Matthews’s Gospel is pure, with no added commentary. He said that he followed the Gospel word for word without adding a single syllable. He explained in the interview that his idea to make the film happened by coincidence. “In October of 19
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more

Michelangelo Frammartino's "Il buco" — Unearthing our past

When a team of speleologists descended 700 meters into the Bifurto Abyss in Cosenza, Calabria, in 1961, they discovered that the underground caverns were the third deepest in the world and the deepest in Europe. Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Frammartino retraces that mission six decades later with a cast of locals and their livestock in his latest documentary, “Il buco” (“The Hole”). Inspiration for the film came while he was on location shooting his 2007 documentary, “Le quattro volte” (“Four Times”). Officials in the Pollino mountains, which stretch between Calabria and Basilicata, showed him what appeared to be just another sinkhole. Frammartino failed to understand their enthusiasm until they tossed a large stone into the void. It disappeared without making a sound. He was so overcome by the experience and the eerie landscape, he was haunted for years, compelling him to make his current film, one of many rooted in nature. “I was born in Milan, but my family is from Calabria. My pa
Post a Comment
Read more