Isabella Rossellini has always lit up the atmosphere around her.
His smile, his grace, his culture, his love for animals and art (which he skilfully combined in the directorial project Green Porno) but also the timbre of his voice, the calm he exudes, the confidence he transmits.
At the Rome Film Festival to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award and giving himself to the public in a Masterclass, he also meets the press, unfortunately for a short time. But this is enough to confirm that talent is made up of many nuances and that curiosity is the true secret of eternal youth.
Here’s what he told us, waiting to see her at the cinema with The Chimera by Alice Rohrwacher.
ISABELLA ROSSELLINI
Mrs Rossellini, I don’t want to be provincial, but I imagine you are particularly happy to receive a lifetime achievement award in Italy.
It is an enormous pleasure to receive it in Italy but especially in Rome which is the city where I was born. I receive this lifetime achievement award which includes not only my work as an actress but I believe also having been a model, director, having become an ethologist, having made short films also inspired by silent cinema… in short, I am very proud of this recognition.
His project Green Porno on the behavior of some animals, also done in an ironic and funny way, how does it reflect his way of being?
My sister told me: I finally recognize you. Because everyone in the family knew about my love for animals and my character who always seeks laughter and lightness around him. In short, at home they know that I have a playful nature and that I am always surrounded by two hundred animals. Obviously, however, those who don’t know me and perhaps saw me modeling thought I was more serious. Now, however, thanks to these little films, I have really shown who I am.
What is your opinion on your career?
I always say that curiosity is my engine and laughter is my fuel. Well, curiosity has certainly guided me a lot in the course of my work. Even in the most difficult periods, when I turned forty and then fifty and I was no longer working as an actress or even as a model, I would say that the desire to get involved and the curiosity to study new things helped me a lot. Yes, I would say that a moment that could have been really sad and depressing instead resulted in a new career full of light for me. In general I have no professional regrets, perhaps if I could go back I would do even more of the things I really like.
What do you think about women in cinema today?
It’s wonderful to see so many women directors. Last year I worked almost only with female directors but also female directors of photography and in general in the various workforces I met almost only women. Previously the crews were made up only of men but now things are slowly changing. I admit that with an almost scientific eye I have recently seen almost only films directed by women to see if different things were told and I must say that it seems to me so, that more stories are told that concern the family, children, grandparents. In short, I have the impression that there is more interest both in us actresses in telling our stories and in the public in following our stories.
How would you define your life?
I don’t know how to define my life in one word… but I can tell you that I liked it! (long laugh)
Source-tg24.sky.it