It would be nearly impossible to underestimate the excitement triggered by Gina Lollobrigida during her many visits to the Venice Film Festival.
The legendary actress, who died Jan. 16 at 95, always created a stir. Journalist Oriana Fallaci, writing in L’Europeo magazine, described Lollobrigida’s arrival in 1956: “A roar rose up from the crowd. The metal barricades risked snapping like twigs, the 156 policemen trying to hold back all those bodies were on the verge of being overwhelmed by the crush. Gina alighted from a taxi. … The photographers rushed towards her. [Her] bodyguard enclosed her in a circle of arms. … All of this took place at 10 in the evening on … the day of the inauguration of the 17th Film Festival, also known as Lollo’s Festival, for the heroine of our time.”
In an interview with Eilidh Hargreaves of The Daily Telegraph, Lollobrigida recalled a similar scene in 1962: “Before we could even dock [at the Lido], we narrowly missed being hit by another boat, loaded with photographers trying to capture my arrival. I was standing up and almost fell into the water when the cameras started flashing all around me.”
This year, the spirit of Lollobrigida again reigned over the festival, which dedicated its pre-opening night to the actress by screening a restored version of Orson Welles’ 27-minute documentary Portrait of Gina and Mario Soldati’s 1953 drama La provincial (The Wayward Wife), based on the novel by Alberto Moravia. Ironically, Lollobrigida was in a seat of honor when Welles’ film first played at the 1958 fest and, deciding it made her look too ambitious, took legal steps that resigned it to obscurity until now.
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