Throughout her life, Sandra Milo was defined (and partly as she defined herself) as 'Fellini's muse': in reality this definition brought together the artistic dimension - two important films from the Great Rimini area between 1963 and '65 - and the emotional one which would have gone much further, according to Sandra even 17 years.
Fellini said several times that he had met her on the beach of Fregene and in '67 he described her as follows: "a girl with slightly rounded curves, eyes that were both mischievous and innocent, who laughed in a way that seemed to me like she was trying to make fun of me" .
The interview with Fellini on Sandra Milo
There was modesty and complicity in this version of 'Sandrocchia' who on the screen would transform her into a seductive femme fatale, an erotic incarnation of one of her recurring ghosts, part lover and part Mediterranean mother, part maiden and a bit of a seductress.
Certainly in both '8 ½' and 'Juliet of the Spirits' the director-demiurge superimposed his image on that of Giulietta Masina, wife in life and representation of reality (as opposed to dreams) on the screen.
For Sandra that story was "a great love", for Federico a passion that over time also became a friendship and secret refuge.
Photo story Sandra Milo, Fellini's muse, dies.
You have accompanied generations of Italians-Cinema-Ansa.it
Much has been made of the strange couple that Juliet had somehow accepted (there are numerous snapshots of the two together) and today it is even difficult to distinguish between reality and legend.
What is indisputable, however, is the artistic centrality that the blonde and generous girl would have received as a gift from her master/lover.
When Federico calls her to be part of the ideal harem that surrounds his alter-ego Mastroianni in '8 ½', Milo is back from a sensational failure after the merciless criticism of 'Vanina Vanini' (1961) by Roberto Rossellini who had removed from the set and from the attention of the producers.
Her appearance in 'The Shortest Day' by Sergio Corbucci in 1962 is almost a sign of affection that the director reserved for her within a cast where - together with Franco and Ciccio - there was also room for a another 'forgotten' like Buster Keaton.
Video Goodbye to Sandra Milo
The impact that Fellini guaranteed her was very different, even leading her to win the Nastro d'Argento as best supporting actress, an award confirmed two years later with 'Giulietta degli Spiriti'.
On the private front, however, Federico never made their relationship public, which was instead made explicit by Sandra only many years later, in 2009.
It would be ungenerous to attribute the cinematographic glory of Sandra Milo only to the two films with Fellini, who achieved success when she already had almost 20 roles for the big screen behind her, including titles of great importance such as the three in which Antonio Pietrangeli directed her (l debut in 'The Bachelor' with Alberto Sordi, followed by 'Adua and her companions' and 'Ghosts in Rome'), 'Il generali della Rovere' by Rossellini, a lot of French cinema with masters of the caliber of André Cayatte, Claude Sautet, Autant-Lara.
And moreover, her artistic career would go beyond the meeting with Fellini, from Luciano Salce to Dino Risi, until her return as a protagonist with Pupi Avati in 'Il Cuore Elsewhere' in 2003, when she had now become a star of the small screen and a darling of the family audience in front of the TV.
Yet today the whole world continues to recognize in Sandra Milo the Fellini image par excellence and she certainly recognized herself in this, just as through the twists and turns of a private life full of storms and changing loves, she preserved the memory of 'her' Federico like a precious secret that only at an advanced age had he been able to reveal and share.
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