Italian Cinema Today

Her beauty captured the attention of producers on two continents, but her talent kept her working through seven decades. Born Virna Pieralisi in Ancona on Nov. 8, 1936, Virna Lisi began acting as a teenager and was cast in her first starring role in the 1953 melodrama “...e Napoli canta!” (Napoli Sings). Although the role opened doors, most directors were not yet able to see beyond her striking beauty and therefore cast her in roles based more on her looks than her acting ability. One of those early parts was as an extra opposite Alberto Sordi in Antonio Pietrangeli’s 1956 “Lo scapolo” (The Bachelor) .  In 1961, she starred in Francesco Maselli’s drama “La donna del giorno” (The Doll That Took the Town) as Liliana, a struggling model who makes up a story about being assaulted by three men. The film was released in the United States, where Hollywood executives saw her and believed they had discovered the European version of Marilyn Monroe.  Lisi made her American debut a few y...

Alida Valli was born Alida Maria Laura Altenburger von Marckenstein-Frauenberg in Pola, Istria, on April 29, 1921. Christened a baroness, she became a movie star at the age of 15. Valli made her screen debut as a lead in Mario Bonnard’s 1937 comedy “Il feroce Saladino.”  In an interview featured in Mimmo Verdesca's 2020 documentary, “Alida Valli: In Her Own Words,” she explained how her last name was changed to Valli. “The writer Amedeo Castellazzi and the director Mario Bonnard found it (Valli) in the phone book. Because Altenburger was a foreign name, it was a bit too long, and so Alida Altenburger didn’t sound right,” she explained. Valli entered the film industry during a period in which Italy’s Fascist government was working on the construction of Cinecittà while producing its own propaganda films. Known as Telefoni Bianchi (White Telephones), the films of this era imitated American comedies and featured upper-class families, opulent art deco sets and the namesake telephones,...