Italian Cinema Today

She’s been called “a kind of Audrey Hepburn with sex appeal.” Having worked in Hollywood and Europe, actress Elsa Martinelli’s pure beauty and innocent demeanor made her the perfect silver screen match for stars like Kirk Douglas, John Wayne, and Gabriele Ferzetti. Born in the Tuscan city of Grosetto in 1935, Martinelli moved to Rome with her family and worked as a model in the early 1950s. Shortly thereafter, she began making her transformation to acting by taking small roles in films like Claude Autant-Lara's Le Rouge et le Noir . In 1955, she was noticed by Kirk Douglas’s wife who had seen Martinelli in Vogue magazine and immediately had her in mind for the role of an American Indian for her husband’s forthcoming project. An offer was made and Martinelli was cast as Onahti, the daughter of a Sioux chief in Douglas’s Technicolor Western The Indian Fighter . A year later, she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 6th edition of the Berlin International Film Festiv...

On this #FlashbackFriday, I'm taking a look back at one of my favorite films in this year's edition of the Festa del Cinema di Roma- Fabrizio Corallo's documentary,  Dino Risi Forever. With director Fabrizio Corallo To mark the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of the master of Italian-style comedy, the festival paid tribute to Risi by premiering  Corallo's beautiful film, which featured intimate interviews showing the director's sense of humor and insight, which inadvertently made him an icon. In the telling interview, Risi spoke of his memories working with the likes of Sophia Loren, Ettore Scola and Dino De Laurentiis. He spoke of his passion for writing screenplays, "Writing was something that I really enjoyed." And Scola spoke of his collaboration with Risi. "I started working with  Dino and I did about ten films with him in all." Risi also spoke in depth about his friendship and collaboration with Vittorio Gassman. The two w...