Sophia Loren in her twenties... Voluptuous!
Bizarre but true confession: I think I've only seen three Loren pictures (gasp!) and I only really remember one of them (Robert Altman's Pret-a-Porter, 1994).
Are you a Sophia fan? If so, which movies and performances do you most recommend? I mean besides her Oscar winning role in Two Women (1961).<--- The movie star in Rome a few months before her 30th birthday (from LIFE Magazine). She turns 75 on September 20th this year. Is this a national holiday in Italy?
More to the contemporary point: Have you made a countdown chart for Nine the Musical yet? I'm tempted to build a 200 piece chain link out of construction paper, hang it on the wall and tear one link off each day until the movie opens. Not that I would know that Nine opens in exactly 200 days . I'm... uh... guessing. That's right. Guessing!
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21 comments:
Thank you very much, Nathaniel! Magnificent pictures, ravishing woman...
I'll admit, i know Sophia Loren is a respected actress and is known for her beauty...but i've never seen one of her movies.
(dodges tomatoes)
But i will this fall...with Nine.
Cool cast including Daniel Day Lewis, Marion Cotillard and Judi Dench? sounds nice.
A Glamourous Nicole Kidman singing?
I'M THERE.
Sophia in English: El Cid. In Italian: Too Bad She's Bad (very young), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (peak with Marcello).
I enjoyed Sophia's most recent performance in The Lives of Saints, an otherwise good, but unremarkable drama. She's really the lead of this film, despite what the film is trying to tell you. It's out on DVD, and it's in English. It appears to have been made for TV, as it's in two parts, too.
Shocking revelation.
Boccaccio '70 is a must for every actressexual, presenting not only Sophia Loren, but also Romy Schneider at their most gorgeous (and Fellini drooling over Anita Ekberg in his segment would fit in there as well, if you happen to be into Anita Ekberg, which I'm not really). Matrimonio all'italiana shouldn't be missed either.
I also feel like mentioning A Countess from Hong Kong here, even though I have to admit it's not much of a good film. But Sophia Loren is wonderful to look at in her pyjamas and probably the second best reason to watch the film (the best would be Margaret Rutherford stopping the film in the one scene she's in - and to be honest, I think there aren't that many more reasons than there two).
Ekberg might as well have only been in one film, and I'm sure you can imagine which one that was (no, not Killer Nun, though that one is pretty good as well).
Is it fair that my excitement for Nine was close to murdered when I heard that two people I wish never existed were added to the cast? Kate Hudson and Fergie are, of course, who I'm referring to.
You should definitely work through her collaborations with Mastroianni from Too Bad She's Bad (1954) right through to Pret-a-Porter (1994) as a mini festival in your own house.
I'm a big fan of A Special Day (1977) about 2 lonely people who find each other in Mussolini's Italy.
Yeah, I was about to say "A Special Day" too. Delicate and melancholy, with some of the best work of both Loren and Mastroianni's careers. If that's not one of the three you've seen, I'd recommend starting there.
Plus, she's a riot in "Marriage Italian Style." The lady had skills.
I'll second Peter's recommendation of Sophia (young, young Sophia) in Too Bad She's Bad, enticing, voluptuous... and a reminder of how underarm hair can be something of an aphrodisiac.
Hot Sophia in the mid-60s machine: Arabesque, Stanley Donen's faux-Hitchcock-faux-Bond.
She's radiant in Sunflower, Man of La Mancha and Ghosts Italian Style, even if the films are generally terrible.
Not intending to argue with MrW, but the Soiphia/Rutherford dynamic in Countess is akin to foreplay dashed by ice water.
"A Special Day", directed by Ettore Scola, is one of her finest performances. It's one of the most important titles of Italian cinema, starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni at their very best (Mastroianni was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar). I highly recommend you!
Sophia's bests...besides LA CIOCIARA (aka TWO WOMEN)...which it's still her most acclaimed perf
1) A SPECIAL DAY: one of italian masterpieces during the seventies, Sophia is very fine in a deglam role
2) THE GOLD OF NAPLES: her real breakthrough!!!
3) YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW: this Academy Awards Winner is not really a milestone, but Loren-Mastroianni are at their best and Loren's striptease is still hot...
4) MARRIAGE ITALIAN-STYLE: DeSica loosely adapted DeFilippo's play just for Sophia and Marcello. they are both perfect
5) EL CID: not a great or challenging role per se, but Sophia is so ravishing as Heston's love interest that if you love Mann's film (and I know a lot of people loves it) it's also thanks to her...
6) BOCCACCIO '70: Sophia in that red dress...oh, jeez...
7) PRET-A-PORTER: Sophia works for the last time with Mastroianni, and their duets are still fab...
8) NEAPOLITAN CAROUSEL: in Italy musicals are not so popular (which it's quite strange, considering the musical tradition of the country), so this could be a nice exception...
9) TOO BAD SHE'S BAD: the lovely thief Loren meets Mastroianni and italian cinema meets its most enduring and best couple!
10) ARABESQUE: Loren at her most glamourous in a quite nice spy story featuring Gregory Peck
mirko s.
ps: as you can see if you appreciate Sophia it's necessary you give director DeSica, producer Ponti and partner Mastroianni their dues...
She was great in Desire Under The Elms too.
El Cid, Marriage Italian Style...I like Arabesque.
And...because I am a humongous Cary Grant fan...Houseboat. I really loved seeing them together.
Anyway...the woman was the real deal.
I am a bit worried about Nine however...because, she really was pretty awful, and off-key in Man Of La Mancha. Maybe she should avoid musicals? But, I guess nowadays with all the auto tune and studio trickery...they can make a singer where there isn't one.
A Special Day is a must, a brilliant masterpiece. Loren delivers a beautiful and delicate perfomance, but Mastroianni is even better, so tender. Great, great movie. And you really should see it: I think A Special Day is one of the earliest movies with a very positive view of gays. Beautiful beautiful movie.
I think Marriage Italian Style is a mess, but people should not miss the great Divorce Italian Style (not a sequel). There's no Sophia Loren in it, but Mastroianni gives his best perfomance ever, a GENIUS comic turn, just like the best Cary Grant performances. It's as great as Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story or Grant in Bringing Up Baby or The Awful Truth.
Divorce Italian Style is like the best non-american comedy ever.
Anyway, I'm rooting so hard for Nine to flop. I hate Rob Marshall and Geisha is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It's worse than White Chicks. Unbearable.
Poor Fellini.
"desire under the elms"
an odd pairing, to be sure, but both she & tony were muy desireable.
I've mostly seen her in comedies:
-"Houseboat" with Cary Grant
- "Arabesque" with Gregory Peck (similar to the Grant/Hepburn "Charade", also directed by Stanley Donen)
- "Lady L" with Paul Newman and David Niven
-"It Started in Naples" with Clark Gable
plus "Desire Under the Elms", Eugene O'Neill's retelling of the Phaedra legend, with Burl Ives as the older husband and Anthony Perkins as the stepson.
The ones I haven't seen and want most to see are:
-"A Special Day" with Marcello Mastroianni (esp after everyone here has said such good things about it)
-"El Cid" with Charlton Heston
- "The Millionairess" with Peter Sellars, script by George Bernard Shaw.
She looks a bit like Lucille Ball in the photo at the top!
I was never really a fan of hers, I never thought she was talented....just always be a sex symbol to me.
Um.. HELLO??? What about GRUMPIER OLD MEN?!!! SHE IS PHENOM in that! (I live in Minnesota)
And HOUSEBOAT is an all-time fave of mine!
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