Alida Valli
Alida Valli , actually Alida Maria Laura Altenburger von Marckenstein and Frauenberg (born May 31, 1921 in Pola , Istria , then Italy ; † April 22, 2006 in Rome ), was an Italian actress of old Austrian origin. She was an international movie star in the 1940s and 1950s with her roles in The Paradin Case (1947), The Third Man (1949), Sehnsucht (1954), and Eyes Without a Face (1960).
Live and act
On her father's side, Alida Valli came from an old Austro-Italian noble family from Trento and on her mother's side of the old Italian-Istrian family della Martina from the marine and port town of Pola (today Pula / Pola in Istria , Croatia ). Her father, Baron Gino von Altenburger, was a teacher of history and philosophy at the kk Staats-Real-Gymnasium and after 1918 under Italian rule at the Italian high school "Giosuè Carducci" in Pola. Her mother Silvia Oberecker della Martina was of German-Italian descent, attended the German humanistic kk Staats-Real-Gymnasium in Pola and then studied at the conservatory in Laibach . She later gave piano lessons. Alida attended the Dante Alighieri Elementary School in Pola. She spent her childhood with the family in Istria, Trentino and South Tyrol . The family moved to Como in the late 1920s .
At the age of 15, Valli took on minor roles in Italian films and from then on used her stage name. Soon she became the most popular and sought-after actress in Italy and was known as “La Fidanzata d'Italia” (The Fiancée of Italy). The song Ma l'amore no , sung by her in the 1942 film Stasera niente di nuovo, was for years the most successful and most frequently played song in Italy. In the same year, her fiancé Carlo Cugnasca fell as a pilot in Libya. In 1943 she worked alongside Beniamino Gigli in the German-Italian co-production of the film I pagliacci (Lache, Bajazzo) based on the opera by Ruggiero Leoncavallo . Not only the Nazi dictatorship in Germany, but also fascism in Italy tried to use the actors for propaganda purposes . Valli did not want to participate and therefore initially refrained from any production.
In 1944 she married the jazz musician Oscar de Mejo , with whom she had two sons. After the war she made several films in Italy again, including La vita ricomincia . She played the leading role in the film Eugenia Grandet (1946) and, due to her success, got a contract offer from Hollywood from producer David O. Selznick , who wanted to build her up as the second Greta Garbo . In the role of Magdalena Paradine in Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradin Case (1947) one had thought of Garbo, but she refused; she had retired from the film business. Then the role of Alida Valli was offered.
In addition to Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten , she then played the leading female role in the famous Graham Greene film The Third Man (1949, director: Carol Reed ), with which she achieved her international breakthrough. Subsequently, Selznick only gave her minor roles , as Selznick had enormous financial difficulties. Valli did not find this beneficial for her career and so she decided to end the contract with Selznick. In order to be able to return to Europe, she accepted a heavy fine.
Not only did she break up with Hollywood, but also with her husband, who wanted to stay in the States and became an American citizen. She returned to Italy with her two sons, where she directed the masterpiece Senso under Luchino Visconti, which would mark the high point of her career. She also made successful films with Bernardo Bertolucci . In the 1900 film , she appeared alongside Gérard Depardieu and Robert De Niro .
In 1954 Valli was embroiled in a scandal from the Roman dolce vita milieu: A young woman, Wilma Montesi , was found dead on a beach near Rome. Among other things, the jazz musician Piero Piccioni, son of the then Italian Foreign Minister, was suspected of being responsible for Wilma's death. Also Moritz of Hesse (Maurizio d'Assia), the son of Italian princess Princess Mafalda di Savoia , was involved in the scandal. Piccioni was exonerated by a statement from Alida Valli, who was friends with him and who at the time in question had spent the weekend at the house of producer Carlo Ponti ( Sophia Loren's later husband ) in Amalfi. The incident could not be resolved, all suspects were eventually acquitted of the murder charge. The trial of a suspected murder victim who had brought to light abuses such as corruption, drug abuse and sexual entanglements among politicians, aristocrats and celebrities, but was largely based on questionable evidence and speculation and was accompanied by the gossip press nationwide, was a milestone of Italian post-war history. But Valli, who actually only played a minor role in the case, had given one of the main suspects a questionable alibi and thus turned public opinion against her, a flaw that cast a shadow over her further career. The press hype in the Montesi case about Italian high society inspired Federico Fellini to write his film La dolce vita ( The sweet life ) .
Valli continued her acting work, also in the theater. In 1971, for example, she played Countess Geschwitz in Frank Wedekind's Lulu in a production by Patrice Chéreau at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan . She also shone in pieces by Gabriele D'Annunzio and Henrik Ibsen .
In 1999 Valli took part in the Austrian television film Vino Santo , directed by Xaver Schwarzenberger . She was seen in several Italian and French television productions, most recently in the film Semana Santa (2002). In total, she took part in more than 130 cinema and television productions.
Alida Valli died early in the morning on April 22, 2006 at her home in Rome at the age of 84. The official farewell took place two days later at the headquarters of the Roman Senate on Campidoglio (Capitol Square) and in the nearby church of Santa Maria in Aracoeli with great sympathy. She was buried in the Verano cemetery in Rome.
Filmography (selection)
- 1936: I due sergenti
- 1937: L'ultima nemica
- 1937: Sono stato io!
- 1937: Il feroce Saladino
- 1938: Mille lire al mese
- 1938: Ma l'amor mio non muore
- 1938: L'ha fatto una signora
- 1938: La casa del peccato
- 1939: Ballo al castello
- 1939: Assenza ingiustificata
- 1940: Taverna rossa
- 1940: La prima donna che passa
- 1940: Oltre l'amore
- 1940: Manon Lescaut
- 1940: Little Old World (Piccolo mondo antico) - Director: Mario Soldati
- 1941: Maturing Girls (Ora nove, lezione di chimica) - Director: Mario Mattòli
- 1942: Heimatlos (Le due orfanelle) - Director: Carmine Gallone
- 1942: Lache Bajazzo (I pagliacci) - directed by Giuseppe Fatigati
- 1942: Stasera niente di nuovo
- 1945: To new life (La vita ricomincia) - Director: Mario Mattòli
- 1946: Eugenie Grandet (Eugenia Grandet) - directed by Mario Soldati
- 1947: Der Fall Paradin (The Paradine case) - Director: Alfred Hitchcock
- 1948: The Bells of Coaltown (The miracle of the bells)
- 1949: The Third Man (The Third Man) - Director: Carol Reed
- 1949: Gambling of Life (Walk softly, stranger) - Director: Robert Stevenson
- 1950: Hell at the White Tower (The White Tower) - Director: Ted Tetzlaff
- 1950: Love only shines once (Les miracles n'ont lieu qu'une fois) - Director: Yves Allégret
- 1951: Erotik (Ultimo incontro) - Director: Gianni Franciolini
- 1952: Those who live from “love” (Il mondo le condanna) - directed by Gianni Franciolini
- 1952: The Lovers of Toledo (Il tiranno di Toledo) - Director: Henri Decoin
- 1953: We Women (Siamo donne) - 2nd episode directed by Gianni Franciolini
- 1954: Sehnsucht (Senso) - Director: Luchino Visconti
- 1957: Hot Coast (La diga sul pacifico) - Director: René Clément
- 1957: The great blue street; also: Life is without mercy (La grande strada azzurra) - Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
- 1957: The Scream (Il grido) - Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
- 1957: It's always night in their eyes (Les bijoutiers de clair de lune) - Director: Roger Vadim
- 1958: The man in the shorts (L'uomo dai calzoni corti) - Director: Glauco Pellegrini
- 1959: Signed: Arsène Lupine (Signé Arsène Lupine) - Director: Yves Robert
- 1960: Eyes without a face (Les yeux sans visage) - Director: Georges Franju
- 1960: The sacrifice of a nun ( Le dialogue des Carmélites ) - directed by Philippe Agostini
- 1960: The Gigolo (Le gigolo) - Director: Jacques Deray
- 1960: Even after a year and a day (Une aussi longue absence) - Director: Henri Colpi
- 1961: Confusion (Il disordine) - Director: Franco Brusati
- 1962: Rendezvous in Madrid (The Happy Thieves) - Director: George Marshall
- 1962: Die Kastilier (The Castilian) - Director: Javier Seto
- 1963: Ophélia - directed by Claude Chabrol
- 1967: Edipo Re - Bed of Violence - Director: Pier Paolo Pasolini
- 1969: Mushroom poison (L'assassin frappe à l'aube) - Director: Marc Simenon
- 1969: The strategy of the spider (Strategia del ragno) - Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
- 1972: October in Rimini (La prima notte di quiete) - Director: Valerio Zurlini
- 1973: Diary of an Italian (Diario di un italiano) - Director: Sergio Capogna
- 1974: The Power of the Stronger (No es nada, Mama, solo un juego) - Director: José Maria Forqué
- 1974: The Antichrist (L'Anticristo) - Director: Alberto De Martino
- 1974: The flesh of the orchid (La chair de l'orchidée) - Director: Patrice Chéreau
- 1975: Der liebe Victor (Ce cher Victor) - Director: Robin Davis
- 1975: The Devilish (El casa dell escorcismo) - Director: Mario Bava
- 1976: 1900 (Novecento) - Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
- 1976: Suspiria (Suspiria) - Director: Dario Argento
- 1977: A Simple Heart (Un cuore semplice) - Director: Giorgio Ferrara
- 1978: Confession of a Nun (Suor omicidi) - Director: Giulio Berruti
- 1979: The Landvogt von Greifensee - Director: Wilfried Bolliger
- 1979: La Luna (La Luna) - Director: Bernardo Bertolucci
- 1980: Horror Infernal (Inferno) - Director: Dario Argento
- 1981: Peace time in Paris (Sezona mira a Parizu) - directed by Predrag Golubovic
- 1981: A murderous career (Indagine su un delitto perfetto) - Director: Giuseppe Rosati
- 1982: A Spicy Dream (Sogni mostruosamente proibiti) - Director: Neri Parenti
- 1987: Two widows for a corpse (A notre regrettable époux) - Director: Serge Korber
- 1991: Love without words (La bocca) - directed by Mario Bronzone, Luca Verdone
- 1993: Time of Wrath (Il lungo silenzio) - Director: Margarethe von Trotta
- 1995: A Month by the Lake (A month by the lake) - Director: John Irvin
- 1999: Vino Santo - Long live love, long live wine (Vino Santo) - Director: Xaver Schwarzenberger
- 2002: Semana Santa - The Brotherhood of Death (Semana Santa) - Director: Pepe Danquart
watch TV
- 1959: I Figli di Medea
- 1961: Il caso Mauritius
- 1963: Combat! (TV series, 1 episode)
- 1964: Desencuentro (TV series)
- 1964: Dr. Kildare (TV series, 3 episodes)
- 1974: Il consigliere imperiale
- 1978: Les grandes conjurations: Le tumulte d'Amboise
- 1979: L'altro Simenon (TV series)
- 1980: L'eredità della priora (TV series)
- 1983: Dramma d'amore (TV series)
- 1989: Piccolo mondo antico (TV series)
- 1992: Una vita in gioco 2 (TV series)
- 1993: Murder in Tuscany
Web links
- Alida Valli in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Alidavalli.net
- Biography (English) on Istrianet.org
- Obituary on FAZ.net
- Images by Alida Valli In: Virtual History
- Alida Valli in the German dubbing index
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Plass: Alida Valli . Alida Valli. Archived from the original on June 10, 2010. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
- ↑ Text and melody: Archive link ( Memento from May 20, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ The dead woman on the beach . Faz.Net. April 27, 2006. Retrieved September 19, 2010.
- ↑ La dolce vita ( Memento from March 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) in the Dirk Jasper FilmLexikon
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Valli, Alida |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Von Marckenstein and Frauenberg, Baroness Alida Maria Laura Altenburger (real name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian actress |
DATE OF BIRTH | May 31, 1921 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Pola , Istria peninsula , then Italy |
DATE OF DEATH | April 22, 2006 |
Place of death | Rome , Italy |