Sophia Loren: an incredible love story and the 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 carefree: my mother was forced to bring up Sophia and her younger sister Anna Maria on her own, so the family lived rather poorly. To top it off, peers did not like young Sophia and constantly teased her for her tall height (174 centimeters) and thinness. This upset the girl, but did not affect her self-esteem at all.

The love of acting was passed on to Sofia by her mother: she dreamed of a big movie and even passed a screen test for the role of an understudy for the famous Greta Garbo, but her first pregnancy did not happen. not allow his dream to come true. But Sofia actively participated in beauty contests and reached the Miss Italy 1950 contest, which she did not win, but won the promotional title of Miss Elegance.

But a more valuable acquisition was the acquaintance of producer Carlo Ponti (at that time he was working on the image of Gina Lolobrigida herself), who immediately saw the future diva in the 17-year-old province.

Carlo Ponti became the Pygmalion of Sofia, remaking his image: he taught him how to make up correctly, got rid of the stupid Neapolitan accent, incomprehensible in the rest of Italy, taught him how to walk correctly and the forced her to learn English. The pseudonym Sophia Loren is also a merit of Ponti. The surname Shikolone went to her father’s daughter, but since her parents’ marriage was not registered, she was considered illegitimate, which in the 1950s could significantly damage the reputation of the budding artist.

The first films in which the starlet was filmed naked without hesitation could also spoil the image. At first, Ponti turned a blind eye to this whim, but when the popularity of his neighborhood began to gain momentum, he bought all the questionable tapes with Lauren’s participation so that no one would remember their existence.

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

Unsurprisingly, the teacher-student relationship quickly moved beyond the working class. Neither marriage nor Ponti’s age (Carlo was 22 years older than his lover) prevented the couple. And while it was easy to accept the age, serious problems arose with the divorce: at that time, the Vatican rarely gave the green light to officially end the relationship, and after learning about the producer’s affair with a 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 tricks. Carlo’s official wife, he and Sophie first received French citizenship, and only then in this country they filed for divorce and a new marriage in accordance with all laws. Sophie’s path to motherhood was also not easy: she was treated for a long time for infertility, suffered several miscarriages, but gave birth to two sons: Carlo Ponti Jr. and Eduardo. Carlo became a conductor and director Eduardo filmed his mother in 2002 in the film Entre nous.

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

The union of Lauren and Ponti was almost a fairy tale, with the exception of a small episode. In 1956, Sophie set out 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 it goes without saying that passion arose between the Italian beauty and the American idol. However, this connection proved fragile: as soon as Grant proposed to his partner to become his wife, Sophie quickly withdrew and moved on to new filming.

During her life in the United States, she managed to play with Clark Gable (in the film It Started in Naples), Marlon Brando (in The Countess from Hong Kong), Richard Burton (in The Trip) – all sex -symbols of the 60s. were at her complete disposal, but this time Sophie decided to remain faithful to Carlo.

Another famous partner of Sophie was Marcello Mastroianni, with whom she played a couple in several films at once: “It’s a pity that you’re a rascal”, “Yesterday, today, tomorrow”, “Wedding at the ‘Italian’, ‘Sunflowers’. In 1994, the actors met again on the same set – in the film “High Fashion” – and for fun they decided to repeat the legendary striptease scene from “Yesterday, today, tomorrow”. Only if in the first version the lover eagerly watched his undressing girlfriend, then in the last frame the aging hero fell asleep without waiting for a full exposure.

The most important achievement of the American scene was the Oscar, which was awarded for the first time to an actress who starred in a film not in English. Sophie received the statuette for her starring 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. Before this photo, I was the interpreter of the role. After her, I became an actress,” Lauren admitted to Vanity Fair magazine.

From the 1970s, Sophia Loren appeared less and less in films, carefully choosing projects and producing an autobiography and a cookbook. At the same time, Hotchiner Sophie’s book: 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 received another “Oscar” – for her contribution to cinema – and was included in the list of the 25 greatest actresses in the history of cinema by the American Film Institute.

“I would like to share this award with three men in my life. With my husband Ponti, without whom I wouldn’t be who I am today. And with my two sons, who taught me how to conjugate the verb to love”, declared the actress during the ceremony of the Oscars.

And in 2007, 71-year-old Lauren, remembering her early work, posed nude for the Pirelli Calendar and became the oldest model in the entire 30-year filming history.

One of the most notable recent film projects of the 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 impeccable beauty and style. And the diva, of course, does not reveal her secrets to anyone, mysteriously replying that her fresh outlook is the merit of a healthy lifestyle.

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