Franca Valeri, a life for TV, theater and cinema, is dead

Franca Valeri died . The actress, born in Milan in 1920, had just turned 100 on July 31st. She died around 7.40 in her home in Rome. The funeral home for Franca Valeri, the great actress who died at the age of 100,

will be set up tomorrow at the Argentina theater, from 5 to 9 pm . The funeral will then take place in a strictly private form. The daughter, Stefania Bonfadelli, announces it to ANSA. "To anyone who wants to make a gift with flowers, we ask for a donation to the Franca Valeri non-profit shelter for abandoned dogs, which he was very fond of", he underlines.

The President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella , sent his family a message of condolence for the death of Franca Valeri, a versatile and popular actress, whowill remain in the hearts of Italians for his great skill and his extraordinary sympathy.

Franca Valeri "passed away peacefully, in her sleep, surrounded by the affection of the whole family and friends. She kept her irony until the last, until a few days ago: it was her key to life until the end" . Stefania Bonfadelli, Franca Valeri's daughter, tells ANSA.

One hundred years of irony and class , extraordinary vitality and longevity, without losing contact with the world and its transformations. Franca Valeri the first true autonomous female voice of the Italian scene, since her debut in 1948. But also the popular icons of Signorina Snobor of Sora Cecioni . A refined humor and satire capable of seducing intellectuals and conquering the most popular audience. A protagonist also in theatrical writing and in directing for opera.

Franca Valeri: between cinema and TV, a life dedicated to entertainment

'' Every time I delude myself into meeting that gentleman who I believe to be the theater, I realize that I am living the most beautiful illusion of my life '', Franca Valeri has always declared and in this illusion, in this meeting it was the secret of its vitality and its longevity, without ever losing contact with the world and its transformations. The actress died today in Rome, surrounded by the affection of her family, a few days after her 100th birthday, on 31 July.
She was born in 1920 in Milan, from a good family of Jewish origin. Easy to say, of an artist who immediately after the war interpreted the vices, the changes, the weaknesses of a society in great transformation and then decay, remembering that this lady, cultured, ironic, with taste, was the first true independent female voice of the Italian scene, since her debut in 1948. In '' Bugiarda no, reticente '' shortly before the age of 90, she had written '' Our generation was prepared . Preparation is not just physical strength, and there is no doubt that we are more robust than young people, the exercise is above all of a moral nature ''. Then he was still going up on stage and was about to debut a new comedy, '' Not everything resolved '', while he publicly fought and managed to get the project for a landfill near Villa Adriana canceled.

Look at the photos Franca Valeri is dead, ALL THE PHOTOS

And while everyone still remembered her as Signorina Snob or Sora Cecioni , figures who became popular icons of resounding success and of which she felt a prisoner for a long time, she liked to underline how at a certain point they had `` recognized Franca Valeri as a writer and author of various books and comedies '' and no longer just as a TV comic actress, among other things betrayed on her cultural origins by her stage name, derived from the refined French poet Paul Valery, '' because my father did not want me to do theater '' , in place of the original Franca Maria Norsa. In fact, his greatness was precisely in the refinement of his humor, as well as his satire, capable of seducing intellectuals and at the same time conquering the most popular public, in a path that was born after the war and from his partnership with Vittorio Caprioli (who later became her husband) and Valerio Bonucci with whom he gave life in 1951 to the '' Gobbi '', creators of a chamber magazine entitled '' Carnet des notes '', a new way of doing cabaret with a touch of satire of Italian society, which was launched also from the overwhelming success obtained in Paris. Her career is divided at the beginning, before her commitment to music and opera, between theater and cinema, which makes her famous with the various films of Caprioli (from 'Leoni al sole' to 'Parigi o cara') and in particular with 'The sign of Venus' of 1955 by Dino Risi, in which he shows off all his theatrical determination, duet with the antagonist Sordi and without being overshadowed by Sophia Loren . But to earn her a place in the anthology of Italian character actors is the extraordinary performance alongside Sordi in 'Il vedovo' (1959) as well as '' Crimen 'by Camerini in 1960, the year in which the Piccolo in the' Maria Brasca 'by Testori, and gradually it will also be in author shows such as Bourdet's' Fior di pisello', directed by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, and Coburn's' Gin Game 'with Paolo Stoppa. Among the general public, however, she remains tied to her female characters, masks if you want but not specks and endowed with their sincere humanity.

Popularity comes with the radio and then the TV where it became one of the attractions of the varieties signed by Antonello Falqui. It is the era of the Roman Sora Cecioni, lazy and in bad taste in her impetuousness, launched by Studio Uno and become a small classic, together with the more sophisticated and Milanese Signorina Snob, who for her creator `` was not the figurine of a sketch , but something real and lived in which also shines through the tragedy of the snob, that of not being able to adapt to the reality that surrounds him ''. On TV, later on, he will also take part in some fiction, from the sit-com with Bramieri 'Norma and Felice' until 2000, in his eighties, alongside Nino Manfredi in 'Linda, il brigadiere e ...' on Rai1.

His ironic gaze as an interpreter and participant witness of the changes in Italian society in the second half of the last century will find a high moment of expression when, after a debut in 1961 with `` Le catacombe '', pochade that reverses roles and makes silly and vain protagonist a man, in the '70s he began to write and interpret his own comedies which he cares a lot, from' Lina e il cavaliere 'to' Less stories 'or' Tosca and other two '(which also became a film in 2003) and' The widow Socrates' up to '' Not everything resolved '' of 2011 and '' The change of horses' 'of 2014 on the illusions and ambiguities of life investigating the relationship and the passage between generations, which see her on stage up to 94 years in Spoleto with her partner Urbano Barberini and the director Giuseppe Marini, for whom she took part in the demanding 'Serve' of Genet with Guarneri in 2007, despite the struggle with the disease, Parkinson's disease , which already afflicted her. In the meantime, with the usual vitality and curiosity, he had seriously begun to give himself to music supported by his new partner, the musician Maurizio Rinaldi, both as an opera director and by giving life to the 'Battistini' competition for young singers. After all, she always remembered that her mother had taught her not to celebrate birthdays and instead always look ahead, for her always with the desire and nostalgia for the stage: '' Today I am here at home and not in my natural home, the theater. I don't act anymore and I hardly even understand why. I would still like to repay people's affection by continuing to work, '' he said not long ago, refusing to celebrate himself, in front of the public or in an interview, with his eternal self-deprecating perspective.