At 90, Sophia Loren is celebrated as an icon | Cinema

It all began, when she was sixteen, with a participation in the Miss Italy contest, which she did not win, but came in fourth place. But her beauty and her chiseled lines earned her the consolation prize of Miss Elegance and a projection that would open doors for her in the world of cinema: she made her debut that same year, in 1950, but her name was still Sofia Lazzaro (she would later become Sofia Cicolone, before taking the international name Sophia Loren) and would not appear in the credits until a year later, in Libra Biancafrom 1951. This Thursday he celebrates his 90th birthday and will be celebrating in a big way.

In that very year, 1951, he met the producer Carlo Ponti, with whom he would later share his life: parents of two sons, Edoardo and Carlo, they married in 1957 and the end would only be dictated by Ponti's death, in 2007.

Besides Carlo, the success is also attributed to Vittorio De Sica, who gave him the role. Naples gold In 1954 and the following year with great success Bread, love and… “It was the first time in my life that someone believed in me and bet on me,” the actress recalls. In a great interview with La Repubblicaabout your birthday.

In the following decade, he was split between Hollywood and Italy, alongside the biggest stars of the time. His most famous films include: pride and passion (1957), directed by Stanley Kramer, in which he starred alongside Frank Sinatra and Cary Grant; The Lost City (1957), written by Henry Hathaway, with John Wayne; key (1958), by Carol Reed, with William Holden; or Cynthia (1958), written by Melville Shavelson, again with Cary Grant.

Loren's rise was rapid, and in 1961, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film Two women. This was followed by more than 50 international awards, including another Oscar, a BAFTA, an Honorary Golden Bear, a Golden Lion of Venice, and the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in 1995.

He has no regrets about his career in cinema, he confirms in the aforementioned interview. “I have never regretted what I missed, I prefer to believe that I will find something better tomorrow.” He ventures: “Who knows, maybe he will create a new masterpiece, as if he were twenty years old.”

Especially since he wants to return to work with his eldest son, director Edoardo Ponti (the younger Carlo is the conductor of the orchestra), who was responsible for Life ahead of you (2020), in which Sophia Loren plays a Holocaust survivor who takes care of an immigrant child. “We want to work again. We want to remember that the beauty of age and that the past stays with us. We will see. I remain firmly Neapolitan: I am superstitious and I prefer not to talk about it,” she lifts the veil to La Repubblica.

In 2023, she underwent surgery to treat a broken hip, after a fall, but otherwise, Sophia Loren has no other known health issues that would prevent her from working. “I keep searching, thinking there is a piece of paper somewhere that won't let me sleep at night,” he insists.

Beauty standards

Nothing in Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone's childhood predicted that she would become one of Italy's icons and one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. She was born on September 20, 1934, in the ward for single mothers at the Santa Margherita Clinic in Rome. Being born out of wedlock was, of course, a shock in the ultra-Catholic Roman Catholic society of the time. Of aristocratic origin, her father only bestowed the surname Scicolone on her and visited her on rare occasions.

Faced with abandonment, his mother, Romilda, herself an aspiring actress, had no choice but to return to Pozzuoli, near Naples. Sophia Loren spoke on several occasions about the difficulties she faced during a childhood marked by war and poverty. Later, he was the victim of prejudice (or bullying) for being too tall and skinny. “I realized that my attractiveness was the result of many irregularities blended together into one face, my face,” he later admitted.

Her beauty would define her path, not only as an icon of cinema, but also of fashion. She was one of Christian Dior's muses, for whom he designed the famous Caracas dress in 1957, shortly before her death. The fashion house has always been linked to Lorraine, and in the era of Marc Bohan, designed the actress's entire wardrobe for her. Arabesquein 1966. Sofia also has a fondness for Italian fashion and is one of Giorgio Armani's best friends, who also recently celebrated his 90th birthday.

However, in Hollywood, she didn't always feel like she fit the beauty standards. In your memoir yesterday, today, tomorrowwhich came out a decade ago, recalls an episode in which they tried to change his nose. Carlo told me: The director thinks your nose is too long. “I told him that if I had to have my nose done, I would go back to Pozzuoli,” he wrote, with a sense of humor.

Being a feminist, it wasn’t easy to stay in Hollywood. “There were obstacles and I remember how many people around me tried to deprive me of happiness. I fought everything until I got rid of them,” he admits. He is more optimistic about the future of women and praises two in particular. “From my youth until today, women have gone much further, almost to the top. Kamala Harris, in America, and Ursula von der Leyen, in Europe, are examples of women who not only live by their vision of progress and equality but whose mission is to turn these battles into reality for the benefit of all women.”

Back to Rome for the party

Her friend Armani will be the one to dress the actress for her birthday party on Friday. Lauren is flying in from Switzerland, where she currently lives, to celebrate with family and friends and is staying at the luxurious Anantara Palazzo Naiadi hotel, which has decided, as a birthday present, to name a suite in the actress's honour, according to the British newspaper “Daily Mail”. The Corriere della Sera.

The 180 square metre room is where Sophia Loren usually stays when she visits Rome and stores her “lesser personal tastes and precious memories”, and the hotel, which has decorated the room with white roses, the singer's favourite flower, has also included a Puzzuoli painting for the special stay. The morning after the party, there will be no shortage of coffee served with two biscuits savoyardi, Which Lauren takes every morning.

To celebrate the 90th anniversary, 150 people were invited to start their night with an aperitif on the hotel’s terrace overlooking Praça da República and the ancient Baths of Diocletian. Dinner and a party would follow, because life still needs to be celebrated. “My story is very beautiful, full of many things, many memories, good and bad, because life is sometimes very difficult. Very violent, especially when you were born and raised during the war. But, of course, the ending is happy,” he wrote in his memoirs in 2014 and is sure to keep it at 90.