Sunday, 11 January 2015

Yet more RIPs

Anita Ekberg (1931-2015), aged 83, the former Miss Sweden was born in Malmo and was in Hollywood by the 1950s. I grew to like Anita a lot (as per posts on her here, Anita label), for me she was the most sensational of the 50s glamazons, no wonder she had beaus like Ty Power and Gary Cooper and Sinatra ..... 
I have a Bob Hope comedy she did, still to watch: PARIS HOLIDAY, and I love her late 50s period when she was totally stunning, as in ZARAK, INTERPOL, BACK FROM ETERNITY and SCREAMING MIMI, and that oddball western VALERIE, in 1957 with her husband Anthony Steele.
Then of course the two Fellini's and lesser films .... and sizzlers like that KILLER NUN!
For me, she is up there with Loren, La Lollo, Silvana Mangano, Monica Vitti and Claudia Cardinale. They just don't make them like that any more. Watching her with Martin & Lewis you see her sense of humour, she is bemused by her own voluptiousness and how it affects men.
Expect lots of that Trevi fountain scene on the news bulletins. 
Anita wows them in ZARAK: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxpTYwHOt48
In a 1980 interview she is quoted: "I have no regrets. I have loved, cried, been mad with happiness. I have won and I have lost".

Francosco Rosi. (1922-2015), aged 92. Veteran Italian director and writer of political films like SALVATORE GIULIANO (1962), HANDS OVER THE CITY, 1963. THE MATTEI AFFAIR, THE MOMENT OF TRUTH about bull-fighting, LUCKY LUCIANO, CHRIST STOPPED AT EBOLI, ILLUSTRIOUS CORPSES, the 1984 CARMEN, CHRONICE OF A DEATH FORETOLD  and the charming, oddball fairy tale C'ERA UNA VOLTA (MORE THAN A MIRACLE) in 1967, with Loren at her zenith. He also scripted Visconti's BELLISSIMA for Magnani. His films dealt with power , poverty, corruption - his commitment to social issues made him heir to the Italian neo-realists of the postwar years, and perhaps with Fellini, Antonioni and Visconti he was one of the last of the giants of the Italian cinema, while not been as internationally famous. 
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3 comments:

  1. joel6591311 January 2015 at 17:42

    Good gracious! Hard times for Italy's film legacy what with Virni Lisi and now Rosi and Ekberg. I know she was Swedish by birth but her main success came in Italy. I just happened to catch her in Back from Eternity last week. They were showing it back to back with the original Five Came Back where Lucy!! played Anita's part. An interesting contrast. Sadly her last years don't appear to have been as peaceful as Miss Lisi's. Sad.

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  2. Michael O'Sullivan11 January 2015 at 17:55

    Indeed. Monica Vitti too has been unwell and not seen for some years, seems she may have Alzheimers. and is also 83 now. .... Anita should have married well.... Back From Eternity is a great treat, I saw it as a kid and forgot about it until some years ago when I enjoyed it all over again.

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  3. Michael O'Sullivan12 January 2015 at 10:34

    To her credit Anita did not sell herself off to the highest bidder by marrying well, and - like Bardot - aged naturally. The likes of Jane Fonda and Dame Collins with all their "work done" look ridiculous by comparison.

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