Sophia LorenSophia Loren

Her long afternoons off with Gable, Power and Grant, celluloid friends at the Pozzuoli cinema, where she chained up to 4 films in a row, seemed to make her an eleven-year-old transcript of Mia Farrow in The Purple Rose of Cairo . Like her, she escaped in the cinema from a sad reality. But such a hobby nurtured a goal, to be an actress: “Not for success and fame, furs, jewelry, expensive cars and mansions…”, she explained. “It was because of what those actors were doing on screen, not what they got in return.” And the desire took shape. For this, she had the help of her mother, Romilda, who took her to a beauty contest at the age of 14. Her next step was to apply as an extra for Quo Vadis?, which Melvin LeRoy was going to shoot in Rome. They selected mother and daughter. Appearing in fotonovelas, looking for papers, everything was worth to stand out. Until she set eyes on her future husband, Carlo Ponti. Gina Lollobrigida ‘s discoverer gave her a test run in Africa Under the Sea (1953), where she adopted the surname ‘Loren’.

After a film version of the opera “Aida”, where he was dubbed for the sung part, the next stroke of fortune came with Vittorio De Sica . The filmmaker wanted her for the episode “Pizza on credit” of The Gold of Naples (1954). Here all its interpretative possibilities appear. The camera loves their earthy and exuberant beauty, clearly Mediterranean, and their sparkling vitality and energy will help to compose likeable and cheeky characters, with a vulgar touch, capable of driving the sanest man crazy. De Sica would advise her not to study acting, that her teacher be her. The following year she marks another milestone: she acts with De Sica and newcomer Marcello Mastroianni in La ladrona, la padre de ella y el cabista , byAlessandro Blasetti . The chemistry with Mastroianni is perfect. With him and De Sica he repeated in Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963) and Italian Marriage (1964), and only with Mastroianni, in La bella campesina and La suerte de ser mujer , from 1955, A particular day (1975) and Ready-to-wear (1994).

But Hollywood waits, and after polishing her English, Loren crosses the pond. His childhood dreams come true, and he shares credits with Stanley Kramer , Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra ( Pride and Passion , 1957), Jean Negulesco and Alan Alda ( The Mermaid and the Dolphin , 1957), Henry Hathaway and John Wayne ( Sands of death , 1957)… The list of legendary names is endless: Anthony Quinn , Gable, Howard, Holden, Sellers, O’Toole, Heston, Brando, Chaplin, Newman, Niven, Peck… In Spain, with Anthony Mann and Samuel Bronston, will El Cid(1961) and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). Her return to Italy will coincide with the calming of the troubled waters of her wedding with Ponti – before she gave pumpkins to Cary Grant –, who had given much to talk about because the producer was already married. She with him she will have two children.

If Sophia shines with her own light with a role, that is the one that gave her the Oscar. Two women narrated the hardships of a mother and her daughter during World War II. De Sica had thought of giving the role of mother to Anna Magnani and that of daughter to Sophia. When the first refused to appear as the mother of the other, while she challenged the director to give the role of her to Loren, she accepted the challenge. Her result could not have been better: she won a golden statuette that she believed impossible to snatch from her competitors that year, some tremendous Audrey Hepburn , Piper Laurie , Geraldine Page and Natalie Wood .