Editor

Sophia Loren's career has always been a family thing. As a kid, her mother enrolled
her on beauty pageants before taking her at age 15 to Cinecitta, where they
both appeared in Mervyn Le Roy's Quo Vadis. In 1957, Sophia Loren married
producer Carlo Ponti, who some claimed was the "father figure she never experienced
as a child". It is now up to the new generation to take the family names further
into movie territory with Between Strangers, in which Edoardo Ponti cast
his mother Sophia Loren in a role close in tone to her part in A Special
Day's. Present at Venice, Sophia Loren regaled the press with a wit and
sincerity... still running in the family.



Why did you choose to play in this movie?



I chose to play in my son's movie because when he gave me the script, I started
to read it and I'm accustomed to reading scripts. So I started and when I felt
that while I was going through the lines, I was almost playing the lines, because
I liked them so much, then I said to myself, 'Well, why am I doing this, I think
I'm 100 % in it already.' It was a very, very vibrant story, and it was a very
emotional story, and it's something very close to my nature, that's why I chose
to do it.



Was it the first project you decided to work upon together?



This was the first time he gave a script to me, because he's just starting,
and he gave me this script two years ago. He's 29 now, but when he gave me the
script, he was 27. Terribly young! (Laughs) So you see, there's a long way to
go! (Laughs)



Do you feel this woman has a connection to the Scola film you did with Mastrioanni,
A Special Day?



I think there is a feeling in it of A Special Day. The atmosphere, the
character could look a little bit like A Special Day, but of course,
it's something else, because it's another kind of story. It's a story Edoardo
wrote for me, with a clear vision of this character. On the set, Edoardo was
very specific, very demanding, I had a real hard time with him! (Laughs)



How do you feel about receiving the Bianchi prize here at the Venice Film Festival?




I'm very honored to be awarded such a prize, all the more so as it is given
me by the Italian journalistic community. I feel this prize will stand beautifully
between my two Oscars. It's the first time that I'm back in Venice since...
I can't say how long, really (Laughs), since I got an award for The Black Orchid.
I feel extremely happy, all the more so as I am now in Venice with my son, who
is presenting his first film while this is my hundredth film. Receiving this
prize will be a very emotional moment for me.



Is it in any way difficult for you to shed your glamorous image on screen, like
in Between Strangers?



I think that when you're doing a film like Edoardo's film, it's something that
goes with the role. I mean, I couldn't come on the set all glamorous, trying
to be beautiful. The character was something else, completely different. Of
course, we had a hard time in making me a little bit... I mean, the make up
is not there, but it's there. The shades, wrinkles and things like that. Just
to have a face that looked completely washed out by pains, by sorrows. And also
with the help of the cameraman. Because you could make any kind of make up but
if you don't work along with a cameraman, he can erase everything that the make-up
man does. We had to work together to have this kind of effect of a woman who
shows in her face the sorrow and the pains she has inside. It took three hours
in the morning! (Laughs)



What was working on the set with your son like?



Working together was something, first of all, very emotional for me. And when
I saw him on the first day of shooting, he was behind the camera and I was looking
at him, I thought I brought him to life, he was born, and there he is as my
great friend giving me the most beautiful judgment about how I have to do a
scene. So I felt protected right away, because there he was, and he was my best
friend, I trusted him completely, because Edoardo is a young man, very healthy,
with good principles, very eager to express himself. And so intelligent and
such a great sense of humor. So I really put myself in his hands, completely,
although sometimes, we had discussions about what we had to do, but that's very
normal for a director and an actor. But it was a wonderful relationship on the
set, I was very, very, glad.



What advice would you give to younger actresses?



What should I say? To find good stories. To be determined in life. To work very
hard. To think only about what they have to do. And not do little things here
and there. To be very serious about their work, because our work is something
very, very difficult to do. It takes a lot of passion, energy, a lot of hard
work and sweat.

Do you feel now less dramatic and "aggressive" than you may have been in
the past, more introvert?



I changed a lot. (Laughs) Sometimes, I can still be very dramatic, sometimes...
But I mean, I'm not that kind of person who is very, very aggressive. There
must be some time in a day when one wants to react in a certain way, because
you have problems. But I don't have this kind of nature at all.



How hard is it really to last as long as you have and still be so beautiful?

I think that for how I look, it's in the DNA. If you saw my mother she was
still looking wonderfully just before she died. It's something that runs in
our family. We're always very beautiful. (Laughs)



Robin Gatto