"Regrets? Only one. Many years ago a great director like Luchino Visconti proposed me to play the nun of Monza, but then nothing was done and I don't even remember why. Too bad, he was a character I loved very much" .
So Sophia Loren today from her home in Geneva where, together with her son Edoardo Ponti, she remotely presented her latest starring film: LIFE BEFORE HIMSELF on Netflix from 13 November.
Loren, who has not acted since 2013, the year in which she participated in the medium-length film of her son VOCE UMANA, in this film inspired by the novel La vie devant soi, by Romain Gary, is Madame Rosa, an elderly Jewish woman and former prostitute, who for surviving hosts children in difficulty in his small apartment in Bari.
Under his protection will also end up Momò, a turbulent 12-year-old from the street of Senegalese origins (the extraordinary newcomer Ibrahima Gueye).
Apparently nothing unites these two people, neither age, nor ethnicity, nor religion, but despite this the heart of this woman, taken by absences, and that of this little boy, too smart not to put himself in danger, will find themselves linked forever.
"The character of Madame Rosa - says the actress, wearing a red turtleneck sweater, in connection from her home in Geneva where she held her son Edoardo's hand throughout the interview - is very reminiscent of my mother (Romilda Villani, ed). It's true - she adds - I stayed away from the sets for many years, but I didn't even notice. I needed silence, to be with my children, to watch them grow up ".
And again the actress about her mother: "Like Madame Rosa she talked a lot and was beautiful. She was also an artist, she played the piano very well and thanks to this talent we ate during the war".
In LIFE BEFORE even SELF the phrase "It's when you believe not that happen beautiful things'," was a phrase that was said often my mother, who has not had an easy life with my father. "
The film highlights the Loren "still gives a message of tolerance, forgiveness, love and reminds us that we all have the right to be heard and that our dreams come true."
To be Neapolitan? "I am proud of it.
I like Neapolitan words, the way of life, in short, I am Neapolitan at a thousand percent and it was also my luck.
I think about the meeting with De Sica, a Neapolitan too, who changed my life ".
" How do I behave with respect to Covid?
It is a difficult thing to say.
I am afraid of everything and so I am to follow the laws.
In short, I am always careful even if contacts are important and I miss them ".
And again from the Italian actress two times Oscar winner a consideration on the closure of theaters and cinemas:" Cinema and theater are a refuge to meet and are part of our emotional health, but health, the real one, is more important "On the choice of Bari as a location, the director replies:" We wanted a city at the crossroads of many ethnic groups, a very warm, human, vital city with a wide range of colors ".
In the cast of the film, produced by Carlo Degli Esposti and Nicola Serra, also: Renato Carpentieri, Iosif Diego Pirvu, Abril Zamora, Massimiliano Rossi and Babak Karimi.