"My mother was first of all a mother, a free woman, a big head."
While the images of her beautiful, blonde and seductive girl dressed in red or black and white on one of her many sets scroll on the screen, it was her children who told who Sandra Milo "really" was.
The Municipality of Rome, the city that the actress had chosen and loved, offered the Protomoteca del Campidoglio to set up the funeral home of the actress, who passed away yesterday at the age of 90.
And she, Federico Fellini's muse, eternal icon of Otto e 1/2, like a true diva, arrives unusually late, with the photographers waiting for her, accompanied by the three children she raised practically alone: Debora Ergas, Ciro and Azzurra De Lollis.
Inside her, white flowers, a crown from Cinecittà Luce and next to her photo the effigy of Padre Pio and the Madonna with the holy water of Lourdes.
"My mother has always shared everything: joys, pains, ascents, failures", says Debora, now a journalist at La vita in diretta, close to her brother Ciro.
Azzurra, on the other hand, will maintain the utmost confidentiality about her, often with her face covered.
"My mother always paid for her mistakes firsthand and never boasted of her conquests - continues Debora -. Cinema sometimes praised her, sometimes forgot her, but we know that she only sowed love and generosity. She left without even owning a home, because she donated what she earned to those who needed it most."
She knew poverty.
"She had been displaced during the war, she grew up with a mother, a grandmother, a sister, and was head of her own family from the age of 12 - Debora nods - Since then she has always worked. She has never stopped , raising three children in absolute solitude. This - he reflects - for us was an infinite example of dignity, independence, free head. And then he always fought for civil battles, for the least fortunate, against violence against women, for the right to divorce, career and equal salaries. Even for the end of life and for animals. He saved two dogs who are now at home and they cried all yesterday."
And again, moved: "My mother is a woman of culture who, despite the war preventing her from obtaining a qualification, never spent a day without reading. Every morning she asked for her paper copy of the Corriere della Sera ".
Meanwhile, some admirers arrive behind her and then Caterina Balivo, Milena Miconi, Paola Saluzzi, Leopoldo Mastelloni.
We would expect a few more, even among institutions and associations.
"We are remembering one of the greatest Italian actresses of the second half of the twentieth century", says the culture councilor of Roma Capitale, Miguel Gotor.
"She has traversed and characterized all post-war cinema", reflects Anica president Francesco Rutelli, recalling the David for Lifetime Achievement two years ago.
"She gave more than she received - reflects Pierluigi Diaco - Behind her mask there was a very intelligent woman, capable of taking uncomfortable positions. But the discomfort was also her uniqueness".
Sandra Milo was "a courageous woman, far ahead of the times she lived in", agrees Alberto Matano.
Then we return to the tenderness of his son Ciro.
"She was a sincere, true mother, very present with us - he says emotionally -. A part of me went up there with her. She was beautiful, sweet, apprehensive and with an uncommon patience. She did everything for us I shook her hand until the very end."
After her funeral at the Artists' Church in Piazza del Popolo, Sandra Milo will rest in the family tomb in Verano.
Reproduction reserved © Copyright ANSA