Thursday,
June 05, 2008
Sophia Loren Honored by Turner Classic
Movies Series on Wednesdays in June
The
ANNOTICO Report
Turner
Classic Movies Series will show 23 of Sophia
Loren's best on Wednesdays in June.
Turner Classic Movies Series Honors Sophia
Loren
'They
did a wonderful job [choosing films],' says the Oscar-winning actress. The
channel will show 23 of her best.
By
Susan King
Staff Writer
June 4, 2008
The thing about Clark Gable, said Sophia Loren from her home in
"He was always looking at the watch when it came to 4 or 4:30 in the
afternoon," she said by phone. "Even if we were in the middle of a
scene at 5, I could hear the alarm going off and he would leave the set."
"We were flabbergasted. What?" she added. "But he had it in his
contract."
"It Started in
Other Loren films featured are her Oscar-winning turn in 1961's "Two
Women," the 1958 melodrama "The Key," the 1964 epic
"The Fall of the Roman Empire" and 1957's melodrama "Boy
on a Dolphin."
"They did a wonderful job [choosing films]," says the actress, who
will be 74 in September. "They are showing films that I did when I was 18
and the impact in
In fact, she's still working and is set to star as Guido's (
Daniel Day-Lewis) mother in Rob Marshall's production of the musical "Nine,"
which is based on Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning classic "8 1/2
."
"I just want to work in things that really give me emotions," she
said. "I think for me as an Italian to be in a musical is the dream of my
life. Now I am going to be part of this, whic h I
think is absolutely marvelous. I can't wait to start."
Despite her long career and her Italian background, Loren surprisingly never
worked with Fellini.
"Sometimes in movies, it's very difficult to find a story that is good for
the director and the actress," Loren said. "I always admired his
style, his intelligence. He was also very funny, a great man."
The Italian director with whom Loren is most closely associated is Vittorio De Sica, who guided her to an Oscar in "Two
Women."
"He was my father in the profession," said Loren. "He really
taught me everything because I started with him in [1954's] 'The Gold of
In De Sica, she found the right person at the right
time, she said.
"We came from the same city,
Ironically, Loren wasn't supposed to play the mother in "Two Women,"
a harrowing drama about a widowed shopkeeper and her religious teenage daughter
who flee
De Sica and Loren's husband, producer Carlo Ponti,
wanted Loren to play the daughter and the Oscar-winning powerhouse Anna Magnani to play the mother. But Magnani
refused.
"She said, 'We have two strong characters, and we are going to eat each
other up on the screen,' " Loren said. " 'If
Sophia is in the film, I am not going to be the mother.' De Sica
was very upset. But she left De Sica with this
phrase: 'Why don't you let Sophia play the mother?' "
The director liked Magnani's suggestion. "He wrote me a telegram," she recalled. "I
was in
The film's most haunting sequence -- the aftermath of the two women's rape by
soldiers -- was shot in just one take. "De Sica
said 'Take. Print.' I said, 'No. Let's do it again.' He said, 'No. If something
goes wrong with the negative we will do it again. But it's beautiful.' "
Loren, now a grandmother, has a full life with her grandchildren and her sons
Carlo and Edoardo. "I always feel like I am a
kid. I want to discover things. I am very curious."
But Loren confesses she's still in deep mourning over the death of her husband
early last year. "I met him when I was 15 years old. Can you imagine? A lifetime. When I was with him, I had always in front of me
not a person but the entire world."
susan.king@latimes.com
http://www.latim
es.com/entertainment/la-et-loren4-2008jun04,0,7061850.story
The
ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (With Archives*) on:
Blog: www.AnnoticoReport.com
Italia
Italia Mia: www.ItaliaMia.com *
Topix.net:
www.topix.net/world/italy
Annotico
Email: annotico@earthlink.net