The pre-opening event of the 80th Venice International Film Festival (running August 30 – September 9) will be dedicated to actress Gina Lollobrigida, the icon of Italian cinema who passed away in January. A double-feature screening will take place in the Palazzo del Cinema at the Lido di Venezia starting at 9:00 pm tomorrow.
Portrait of Gina (1958, 27’) by Orson Welles will be presented as a world premiere in collaboration with Cinecittà, restored by Filmmuseum München.
La provinciale (1953, 113’) by Mario Soldati will also be presented as a world premiere, restored by the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale, in collaboration with Compass Film.
Portrait of Gina is a fully completed pilot for a television series about “people and places” with Orson Welles as guide. Long thought to be lost, the film features an interview by Welles to Gina in her villa in Rome. The feature was unveiled in 1986, when it was screened at the Venice Film Festival, one year after Orson Welles’ death.
“In fact, it’s not really a documentary at all, but an essay, a personal essay. It’s not trying to be factual, it’s simply not telling lies. It’s in the tradition of a diary, my reflections on a given subject, Lollobrigida, and not what she is in reality. And it’s even more personal than living my point of view; it truly is an essay”. (Orson Welles, 1958)
La provinciale is adapted from the eponymous novel by Alberto Moravia with a screenplay by Mario Soldati, who also directs. Gina Lollobrigida, in the role of the main character Gemma, offers one of the finest performances of her career. The original camera negative was used to restore the film. A dual-band soundtrack positive preserved in the archives of the Cineteca Nazionale was used for the soundtrack.
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