Franca Valeri
Alma Franca Maria Norsa (31 July 1920 – 9 August 2020), known professionally as Franca Valeri, was an Italian actress, playwright, screenwriter, author, and theatre director. Life and career Born in Milan as Alma Franca Maria Norsa, she managed to survive the Holocaust in Milan with her non-Jewish mother due to a fake I.D. which purported her to be the illegitimate daughter of a gentleman from Pavia. Her Jewish father and brother were able to flee to Switzerland. Since her father did not want her to become an actress, Norsa adopted the stage name Valeri in the 1950s as suggested by a friend of hers who was reading a book by French critic and poet Paul Valéry. Valeri started her career on stage in 1947, and in 1949 she co-founded the Teatro dei Gobbi, along with Luciano Salce and her future husband Vittorio Caprioli. On the radio, she created and played the characters of La signorina Snob (Mrs. Snob), Cesira la manicure and Sora Cecioni. She co-starred in such films as ''A Her ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Order Of Merit Of The Italian Republic
The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic ( it, Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana) is the senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking honour of the Republic, it is awarded for "merit acquired by the nation" in the fields of literature, the arts, economy, public service, and social, philanthropic and humanitarian activities and for long and conspicuous service in civilian and military careers. The post-nominal letters for the order are OMRI. The order effectively replaced national orders such as the Civil Order of Savoy (1831), the Order of the Crown of Italy (1868), the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (1572) and the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation (1362). Grades Investiture takes place twice a year – on 2 June, the anniversary of the foundation of the Republic, and on 27 December, the anniversary of the promulgation of the Italian Constitution. H ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Sign Of Venus
''The Sign of Venus'' ( it, Il segno di Venere) is a 1955 Italian comedy film directed by Dino Risi and starring Sophia Loren. It was entered into the 1955 Cannes Film Festival. Plot The story revolves around an attractive woman named Agnese (Loren) who has many suitors. She lives with her cousin Cesira (Franca Valeri), who has the opposite problem with men. Vittorio De Sica plays a poet in need of money and Alberto Sordi plays a man who deals in stolen cars. Cast * Franca Valeri as Cesira * Sophia Loren as Agnese Tirabassi * Vittorio De Sica as Alessio Spano * Peppino De Filippo as Mario * Alberto Sordi as Romolo Proietti * Raf Vallone as Ignazio Bolognini Vigile del fuoco * Virgilio Riento as Agnese's father * Tina Pica as Zia Tina * Lina Gennari as Signora Pina * Eloisa Cianni as Daisy * Leopoldo Trieste as Pittore * Maurizio Arena as Maurice * Franco Fantasia as Dottore * Marcella Rovena as Elvira * Mario Meniconi as Vigile Urbano * Furio Meniconi as Proprietario del ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Toto In Color
''Toto in Color'' (Italian: ''Totò a colori'') is a 1952 Italian comedy film, and was the first Italian color film shot with the Ferraniacolor system. The film was directed by Steno and starred the comic actor Totò. Plot Antonio Scannagatti is a penniless musician who lives with his sister's family in the small town of Caianello. He dreams of a call from either the Milanese music publishers Tiscordi or Zozzogno (puns of Ricordi and Sonzogno) to guarantee him glory: he is in fact convinced to be a musical genius, calling himself "the Swan of Caianello". One day the mayor is organizing a celebration for the Italian-American gangster Joe Pellecchia, originally from Caianello, and asks Scannagatti to direct the town’s musical band in place of maestro Tiburzio, who suffered a sudden paralysis. Feeling outraged by the proposal he deemed unworthy of his perceived talent, Scannagatti reluctantly accepts when the mayor’s nephew Poldo, lying, promises him a recommendation from the pu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Two Sergeants (1951 Film)
''The Two Sergeants'' (Italian:''I Due sergenti'') is a 1951 Italian comedy film directed by Carlo Alberto Chiesa and starring Mario Carotenuto, Antonella Lualdi and Beniamino Maggio. It is one of several film adaptations of the 1823 play '' The Two Sergeants''. The film updated the historic story of two idlers who steal some military uniforms and become mistaken for real soldiers. Cast * Antonella Lualdi * Mario Carotenuto * Adriana Serra * Franca Valeri * Franco Scandurra * Luciano Tajoli * Nunzio Filogamo * Guglielmo Barnabò * Mario Castellani * Elena Giusti * Beniamino Maggio * Marisa Merlini * Adriano Rimoldi * Cesare Canevari * Pina Renzi Pina Renzi (16 December 1901 – 13 July 1984) was an Italian film actress. She appeared in more than 50 films between 1933 and 1959. She also directed one film, ''Cercasi bionda bella presenza'', in 1942. She was born in Morciano di Romagn ... External links * 1951 films 1951 comedy films Italian comedy films 195 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Luci Del Varietà
''Variety Lights'' ( it, Luci del varietà) is a 1951 Italian romantic drama film produced, directed and written by Federico Fellini and Alberto Lattuada and starring Peppino De Filippo, Carla Del Poggio, and Giulietta Masina. The film is about a beautiful and ambitious young woman who joins a traveling troupe of third-rate vaudevillians and inadvertently causes jealousy and emotional crises. A collaboration with Alberto Lattuada in production, direction, and writing, ''Variety Lights'' launched Fellini's directorial career. Prior to this film, Fellini worked primarily as a screenwriter, most notably working on Roberto Rossellini’s ''Rome, Open City''. Plot The filmdancers and performers struggle to make money from town to town, playing to minimal crowds, while the ageing manager of the company falls in love with a newcomer, to the chagrin of his faithful mistress Melina Amour, played by Fellini's real-life wife, Giulietta Masina. The movie begins with a sold-out vaudeville sho ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly Wide-format printer, large-format print magazine with a revamped website. As of 2020, the day-to-day operations of the company are handled by Penske Media Corporation through a joint venture with Eldridge Industries. History Early years; 1930–1987 ''The Hollywood Reporter'' was founded in 1930 by William R. Wilkerson, William R. "Billy" Wilkerson (1890–1962) as Hollywood's first daily entertainment trade newspaper. The first edition appeared on September 3, 1930, and featured Wilkerson's front-page "Tradeviews" column, which became influential. The newspaper appeared Monday-to-Saturday for the first 10 years, except for a brief period, then Monday-to-Friday from 1940. Wilkerson used caustic articles ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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David Di Donatello
The David di Donatello Awards, named after Donatello's ''David'', a symbolic statue of the Italian Renaissance, are film awards given out each year by the ''Accademia del Cinema Italiano'' (The Academy of Italian Cinema). There are 26 award categories, as of 2021. The industry-voted awards are considered the Italian equivalent of the American Academy Awards and rank among top-tier awards such as the Premio Regia Televisiva for television, the Premio Ubu for stage performances, the Sanremo Music Festival, and the annual Venice Film Festival, which hosts the Golden Lion film award. History The David di Donatello film awards follow the same criteria as the American Academy Awards.) The ceremony was established in 1955 in order to honour the best of each year's Italian and foreign films, and first awarded in Rome on 5 July 1956. Similar prizes had already existed in Italy for about a decade, such as the Nastro d.'Gentro, but these were voted on by film critics and journalists. Ho ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Piccolo Teatro (Milan)
The Piccolo Teatro di Milano (translation: "Little Theatre of the City of Milan") is a theatre in Milan, Italy. Founded in 1947, it is Italy's first permanent theatre, and a national "teatro stabile", or permanent repertory company, and is considered a theatre of major national and European importance. The theatre has three venues: Teatro Grassi, in Via Rovello, between Sforza Castle and the Piazza del Duomo; Teatro Studio, which was originally intended to be the theater's rehearsal hall; and Teatro Strehler, which opened in 1998 with a seating capacity of 974. Its annual programme consists of approximately thirty performances. In addition, the venue hosts cultural events, from festivals and films, to concerts, conferences, and conventions, as well as supporting the Paolo Grassi Drama School. History Piccolo Teatro was founded by theatre impresario Paolo Grassi and actor and director Giorgio Strehler, along with Mario Apollonio, Virgilio Tosi and Nina Vinchi. According to Grassi, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jean Genet
Jean Genet (; – ) was a French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright. His major works include the novels ''The Thief's Journal'' and ''Our Lady of the Flowers'' and the plays ''The Balcony'', ''The Maids'' and ''The Screens''. Biography Early life Genet's mother was a prostitute who raised him for the first seven months of his life before placing him for adoption. Thereafter Genet was raised in the provincial town of Alligny-en-Morvan, in the Nièvre department of central France. His foster family was headed by a carpenter and, according to Edmund White's biography, was loving and attentive. While he received excellent grades in school, his childhood involved a series of attempts at running away and incidents of petty theft. After the death of his foster mother, Genet was placed with an elderly couple but remained with them less than two years. Accord ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Maids
''The Maids'' (french: Les Bonnes, links=no) is a 1947 play by the French dramatist Jean Genet. It was first performed at the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris in a production that opened on 17 April 1947, which Louis Jouvet directed. The play has been revived in France, England, and the United States on multiple occasions, sometimes with men playing the roles of the maids. A TV dramatization Stuepigerne was done by Danish national broadcaster Danmarks Radio in 1962. A film adaptation of the play was released in 1974. Swedish composer adapted the play in 1994 for a chamber opera. Background Genet loosely based his play on the infamous sisters Christine and Léa Papin, who brutally murdered their employer and her daughter in Le Mans, France, in 1933. In an introduction written for ''The Maids'', Jean-Paul Sartre quotes a line from Genet's novel ''Our Lady of the Flowers'' in which a character muses that if he had a play written for women he'd cast adolescent boys in the pa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around the world. A Calendar of saints, feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is preceded by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts Twelve Days of Christmas, twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night (holiday), Twelfth Night. Christmas Day is a public holiday in List of holidays by country, many countries, is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as Christian culture, culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the Christmas and holiday season, holiday season organized around it. The traditional Christmas narrative recounted in the New Testament, known as the Nativity of Jesus, says that Jesus was born in Bet ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pandoro
Pandoro is a traditional Italian sweet bread, most popular around Christmas and New Year. Typically a Veronese product, pandoro is traditionally shaped like a frustum with an eight-pointed star section. It is often served dusted with vanilla-scented icing sugar made to resemble the snowy peaks of the Italian Alps during Christmas. History Pandoro appeared in remote times, the product of the ancient art of breadmaking, as the name, ''pan d'oro'' (literally: 'golden bread'), suggests. Throughout the Middle Ages, white bread was consumed solely by the rich, while the common people could only afford black bread and, often, not even that. Sweet breads were reserved for nobility. Breads enriched with eggs, butter, and sugar or honey were served in the palaces and were known as ''royal bread'' or ''golden bread''. The desserts consumed in the 17th century were described in the book ''Suor Celeste Galilei, Letters to Her Father'', published by La Rosa of Turin, and they included ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |