March Gossip

Have you ever wondered what your life would look like on the screen? Who would play your part? How honest would you be in the script? It’s too bad we can’t each of us write it the way we wish it had been and cast it the way we wish we’d looked. But the essence of biography is that by the time there’s enough story, we’re too old to play ourselves and for that matter, bio-pics are not usually contemplated until all the protagonists are dead. But not always.

There will shortly play on Raiuno a bio-film about Sofia Loren. At least that’s what they say it is, but it appears to me that it may be about Sofia’s mother, who has always been referred to by Sofia as the engine that made Sofia go.

Maria Scicolone

There is reference as well to Sofia’s sister who has a career right now as domestic commentator on TV with International Orange hair. I’d be more convinced if she hadn’t reared Alessandra Mussolini, our Fascist-in-chief in the parliament.

Alessandra Mussolini

But back to Ms Loren, who it seems is to be portrayed by a quite ordinary looking actress who to my mind is prettier than Ms Loren, but definitely not gorgeous as was Sofia in the day. I’ve recently decided that all pretty girls look much alike, whereas both ugly and beautiful vary and sometimes swap positions. I remember a lot of the famous part of Ms Loren’s life, or at least I remember it as it was reported in magazines and newspapers. There’s plenty to know and lots of story there, so why do I think this movie is about Mamma? Because Mamma is played by Sofia Loren herself, and I don’t see her taking a minor part. It wouldn’t have surprised me if she played herself, since she has maintained the look she had in her forties right up into her seventies. Some of the gorgeous has disappeared into pretty in that effort, but she’s still amazing. For her age. Which is a great deal older than her mother was at the time of this film.

So Mamma will be portrayed, it seems, as a sort of Momma Rose figure whom we know from “Gypsy.” Loud, pushy and successful at dragging her two girls from obscurity in a small town near Naples to marriage into the Mussolini family for one daughter and a durable international cinema fame for the other. No secrets will be revealed, I think, but we’ll get a taste of what Sofia wants us to see of her family. And we’ll get more than a glimpse of the Sofia of today.

The film is called “La Mia Casa E’ Piena di Specchi” which means “My House Is Full of Mirrors”. And I bet it is!