Stars of Sophia Loren: the amazing story of love and career of the famous Italian

Sofia Scicolone spent her childhood in a small village near Naples. The young years of the future star can hardly be called careless: my mother was forced to raise Sophia and her younger sister Anna Maria alone, so the family lived quite poorly. To make matters worse, young Sophia’s peers did not like her and constantly teased her for her high height (174 centimeters) and thinness. This upset the girl, but it did not affect her confidence in the slightest.

Sofia’s love of acting was passed on from her mother: she dreamed of a big movie and even passed a film test for the role of a replacement for the famous Greta Garbo, but the first pregnancy did not allow her to fulfill her dream. However, Sofia actively participated in beauty pageants and reached Miss Italy 1950, which she did not win, but received the promotional title of Miss Elegance.

However, a more valuable acquisition was getting to know the producer Carlo Ponti (at that time he was working on the image of Gina Lolobrigida herself), who immediately saw a future diva in the 17-year-old provincial girl.

Carlo Ponti became a Pygmalion for Sofia and adjusted her image: he taught her how to make up properly, got rid of the stupid Neapolitan accent that is incomprehensible in the rest of Italy, taught her the right way to walk and forced her to learn English. The pseudonym Sophia Loren is also a credit to Ponti. The surname Shikolone fell to the girl from her father, but since her parents’ marriage was not registered, she was considered illegitimate, which in the 1950s could significantly damage the reputation of an aspiring artist.

Even the first films, in which the star was filmed naked without hesitation, could spoil the image. At first, Ponti turned a blind eye to this caprice, but when the popularity of his charge began to gain momentum, he bought all the dubious tapes with the participation of Lauren so that no one would remember their existence.

Thanks to the efforts of the master, the actress quickly received job offers, began to act in several films at once and gained the status of the main Italian sex icon. Her most famous paintings of the 1950s were “Gold of Naples”, “Two Nights with Cleopatra”, “Black Orchid”. And in 1955, the film with her participation “Attila – Scourge of God” was released outside Italy.

Not surprisingly, the teacher-student relationship quickly transcended working-class boundaries. Neither marriage nor Ponti’s age (Carlo was 22 years older than his lover) prevented the pair. And if it was easy to come to terms with age, then there were serious problems with divorce: the Vatican then rarely gave consent to the official end of the relationship, and after learning about the affair of the producer with the young star, he completely banned the rental of films with Lauren in Italy.

Ponti and Lauren decided to elope and got married in Mexico. However, this union was not recognized in his native country. Only 9 years later, they managed to register a relationship, not without some trick. The official wife of Carla, he and Sophie first received French citizenship, and only then filed for divorce and remarriage in this country in accordance with all laws. Sophie’s path to motherhood was also not easy: she was treated for infertility for a long time, had several miscarriages, but gave birth to two sons: Carlo Ponti Jr. and Eduardo. Carlo became a conductor and director Eduardo filmed his mother in the film Between Us in 2002.

Unfortunately, in 2007, Sophie’s first and only husband died, a few months before their golden wedding.

The connection between Lauren and Ponti was almost a fairy tale except for one small episode. In 1956, Sophie went to conquer the United States, where she almost immediately received an invitation to star in the film Pride and Passion. On the set, the actress met her longtime idol – Cary Grant, and needless to say, passion broke out between the Italian beauty and the American heartthrob. However, this connection turned out to be fragile: as soon as Grant offered his partner to become his wife, Sophie quickly retreated and moved on to new filming.

During her life in the States, she managed to play with Clark Gable (in the film It Started in Naples), Marlon Brando (in The Countess of Hong Kong), Richard Burton (in The Trip) – all sex symbols of the 60s were fully available to her, but this time Sophie decided to stay loyal to Carl.

Another famous partner of Sophie was Marcello Mastroianni, with whom she played a couple in several films at once: “It’s a shame you’re a villain”, “Yesterday, today, tomorrow”, “Italian marriage”, “Sunflowers”. In 1994, the actors met again on the same set – in the film “High Fashion” – and decided to repeat the legendary strip scene from “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” for laughs. Only if in the early version the lover looked impatiently at the undressing girlfriend, then in the later picture the aging hero fell asleep without waiting for the full exposure.

The most significant achievement of the American stage was the Oscar, which was awarded for the first time to an actress who starred in a film that was not in English. Sophie won a statuette for her lead role in the drama Chochara, convincingly playing a widowed woman fleeing the atrocities and devastation of war.

Chochara will make you cry even if you don’t understand what the movie is about. I played a role before this picture. After her, I became an actress, “Lauren admitted in Vanity Fair magazine.

Since the 1970s, Sophia Loren began to appear in films less and less, carefully choosing projects and making an autobiography and a book of recipes. At the same time, Hotchiner’s book Sophie: The Story of Her Life and Love appeared, based on which a film was made in 1980 (in which the actress played the role of her mother).

In 1991, Sophie won another “Oscar” – for her contribution to cinema – and was included in the list of the 25 greatest actresses in the history of cinema according to the American Film Institute.

“I would like to share this award with three men in my life. With my husband Ponti, without whom I would not be who I am today. And with my two sons who taught me to conjugate the verb to love,” the actress said during the Oscar ceremony.

And in 2007, 71-year-old Lauren, remembering her early work, posed naked for the Pirelli calendar, becoming the oldest model in the entire 30-year history of the shoot.

One of the most notable recent film projects of this diva was the American musical “Nine” in 2009, in which the main beauties of cinema were involved: Nicole Kidman, Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson, Fergie. Despite her age, Sophie is still the standard of perfect beauty and style. And the diva, of course, does not reveal her secrets to anyone and mysteriously answers that her fresh appearance is the merit of a healthy lifestyle.

“Aging is not a problem for me. I’m not a hundred years old yet! Moreover, the capital of the actress is not the body, but the mind. I look at myself through the eyes of my children and I see the most beautiful woman in the world,” admits Lauren in an interview with Reader’s Digest.