Comedy Groundbreaker Franca Valeri

Comedic pioneer Franca Valeri was born Alma Franca Maria Norsa in Milan in 1920 to a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother. Forced to hide her religious identity during World War II, she turned personal sorrow into cinematic triumph in the decades to come.

In 1949, she founded Teatro dei Gobbi with fellow actors Luciano Salce and future husband Vittorio Caprioli. The trio invented a comedic performance style that focused on speed and timing. Unsure of how this new formula would be received in Italy, they decided to make their debut in Paris. “Italy is always a little scary to those who want to invent something new. It is always a bit hostile, a bit mocking,” Valeri told Rai Cultura. “Since the guys had already done a little experiment in Paris with the Piccolo Teatro di Milano, we decided to debut in Montmartre and had an incredible success.”

When work began to pick up, she adopted the stage name Franca Valeri because her father didn’t approve of a life in show business. She was inspired by a friend who was reading a book by French writer Paul Valéry.

During those busy years, Valeri’s career as a writer and creator of her own characters and scripts took off. Among her earliest creations — one she would return to throughout her life — was Signorina Snob. An uppity, highbrow type inspired by her Milanese roots, the character originally appeared on radio and was later adapted for the stage and television. In an early incarnation, Valeri hilariously plays the parts of both Signorina and the manicurist doing her nails.

Watch a clip..

Valeri appeared in dozens of television shows and films in the course of her seven-decade career. Among the films available in the United States is Dino Risi’s 1955 comedy “Il segno di Venere” (The Sign of Venus), which Valeri wrote. The story follows Milan-born Cesira (Valeri), who lives in the shadow of her tall, beautiful Roman cousin Agnese, played by Sophia Loren. “Together, they were Italy,” the Corriere della Sera declared. Click here to watch the film on Netflix.

Valeri often worked as a screenwriter alongside her male counterparts, providing a contemporary woman’s point of view. In so doing, she created and brought to life some of the most beloved characters of the commedia all’italiana genre. She later remarked on how beautiful it was to be a part of those films, describing her iconic collaborators as a big group of friends.

In Steno’s 1955 “Piccola posta,” Valeri plays Lady Eva, a popular advice columnist whose writings sometimes get her readers into trouble. When one of them follows her advice and enters an upscale nursing home, Lady Eva pays her a visit. There, she meets the manager, conman Rodolfo Vanzino (Alberto Sordi), who makes a practice of befriending the home’s aging women in the hopes they will make him a beneficiary to their fortunes. It’s a joy to watch these master comedians share epic scenes together while in the prime of their careers.

In Giorgio Bianchi’s 1959 “Il moralista” (The Moralist), Valeri and Sordi team up again to play Virginia and Agostino, a young couple set up in a new home by Virginia’s father and Agostino’s boss, played by Vittorio De Sica. Polar opposites, Virginia is outgoing and confident, while Agostino is awkward and self-righteous. An endearing dance scene reflects the closeness of their off-screen friendship. The two worked together often and were clearly at ease with each other. Their comic timing was impeccable and their chemistry strong.

In May of 2020, two months before her 100th birthday, Valeri received an Honorary David di Donatello Award for lifetime achievement. She celebrated her milestone birthday on July 31 and passed away in her sleep nine days later on Aug. 9. Younger Italians adored her despite her advanced age, making her a cinematic force to be reckoned with until the very end.

Stream "Piccola posta" and "Il moralista" on Amazon.. Click here to follow an Instagram account created in her honor.

Comments

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...

Golden Age Masterpiece: Luchino Visconti’s 1957 “White Nights”

Photo Credit: Archivio Luce Cinecittà Luchino Visconti’s 1957 film, “White Nights” (“Le notti bianche”), offers a thoughtful and poignant exploration of themes such as loneliness, desire and emotional vulnerability. Based on Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novella of the same name, it transports the tale from 19th-century St. Petersburg to a dreamy mid-20th-century Italian setting. While Visconti remains largely faithful to Dostoevsky’s narrative, his characteristic style infuses the film with emotional depth, striking visuals, and a focus on class and societal constraints. The story follows a young man named Matteo, played by Marcello Mastroianni, who lives a solitary life in a small Italian town. One evening, he encounters a beautiful young woman named Natalia, portrayed by Austrian-Swiss actress Maria Schell, who is also feeling isolated. Although she is initially reluctant, Natalia eventually confides in Matteo about her love for a man who has promised to return and marry her, but he ha...

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...

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 legend...

Eric LoPresti: Fusing art and tech

Known for contemporary landscapes that fuse art and technology, Eric LoPresti is a Brooklyn-based artist with a strong sense of Italian identity. “My father’s family emigrated from Sicily via Ellis Island in 1905, which might explain a deep connection I still feel with that incredible Italian landscape,” LoPresti explains. Before attending graduate school at the Maryland Institute College of Art, he studied sculpture at several schools in Europe, including one in Greppocorgno near Perugia in the region of Umbria, under the guidance of the Boston-based sculptor Vincent Ricci. “For me, this was a transcendent experience — my first time in Italy — and a chance to connect with the Italian modernist tradition,” he says. Since then, he has focused on painting landscapes and other natural subjects, many of them inspired by the vast deserts of the Columbia Plateau in Washington State. The COVID lockdown was a particular productive period for LoPre...

Italian Cinema Today

Search This Blog