ERIC VON STROHEIM IN VENICE – PHOTO
The unmistakable face of Eric von Stroheim, a guest at the Venice Film Festival in 1951, shown here with Giovanni Ponti, the Special Commissioner of the Biennale. In 1958 the Venice Film Festival dedicated a major retrospective to the Austrian director.
KENJI MIZOGUCHI ON THE BEACH – PHOTO
Kenji Mizoguchi on the beach of the Lido in 1953: he was the winner of the Silver Lion that year for Ugetsu Monogatari, jointly with Moulin Rouge by John Huston, Thérèse Raquin by Marcel Carné, Sadko by Aleksandr Ptushko, I vitelloni by Federico Fellini and The Little Fugitive by Ray Ashley, Morris Engel, Ruth Orkin. The Jury chose not to award the Golden Lion.
GINA LOLLOBRIGIDA ON THE SEASHORE AT THE LIDO – PHOTO
Gina Lollobrigida on the seashore at the Lido in 1956: she was one of the most highly acclaimed stars that year. Oriana Fallaci described her triumphal arrival at the Palazzo del Cinema in L’Europeo magazine: “A roar rose up from the crowd. The metal barricades risked snapping like twigs, the 156 policemen trying to hold back all those bodies were on the verge of being overwhelmed by the crush. Gina alighted from a taxi accompanied by Milko Skofic and by a bodyguard. Milko looked bored. Gina was wearing a blue-green satin dress, glittering with sequins; she exhibited blood-red gloves and not a jewel around her neck. (…) The photographers rushed towards her. The bodyguard enclosed her in a circle of arms. You could no longer see her long breezy black curls, her immense wonderstruck eyes and her full lips. (…) All of this took place at ten in the evening on Tuesday August 28th, the day of the inauguration of the 17th Film Festival, also known as the Lollo’s Festival, for the heroine of our time”. Gina Lollobrigida had already participated in the Venice Film Festival in 1952 as the actress in two films: Altri tempi, a film in nine episodes by Alessandro Blasetti, and Les belles de nuit by René Clair.
ANGELO RIZZOLI AND FEDERICO FELLINI – PHOTO
Producer Angelo Rizzoli and a young Federico Fellini meet outside the Palazzo del Cinema: the year is 1958. A few months later, in March 1959, together they would begin production of La dolce vita.
ELSA MAXWELL AND OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND – PHOTO
Elsa Maxwell, the tireless mover of the Venetian smart set, dressed extravagantly as a Navy officer, hugs actress Olivia de Havilland in Venice, in 1955.
JOAN FONTAINE DISEMBARKS AT THE LIDO – PHOTO
1952: Joan Fontaine disembarks on the famous Darsena of the Excelsior Hotel. The actress came to the Venice Film Festival as the star of Ivanhoe by Richard Thorpe.
MARIA CALLAS IN VENICE – PHOTO
1957: Maria Callas is one of the stars that enliven the nights of the 18th Venice Film Festival with her husband Giovanni Battista Meneghini. That was the year that the opera singer met Aristotle Onassis for the first time in Venice, and two years later he would become her partner.
The Biennale Cinema 2016 will run Aug. 31 to Sept. 10
(Source:www.labiennale.org)
