Mastroianni, Marcello

(1924-1996)

   Actor. Undoubtedly the actor who most came to represent Italian cinema in the postwar period, Mastroianni began acting in films from a relatively young age, making early appearances as an uncredited extra in Alessandro Blasetti's La corona di ferro (The Iron Crown, 1941) and Vittorio De Sica's I bambini ci guardano (The Children Are Watching Us, 1943). After carrying out his military service during World War II, he returned to Rome and entered the theater, where he worked with Luchino Visconti. By the early 1950s he had returned to films, at first doing minor parts, as in Luciano Emmer's Domenica d'agosto (A Sunday in August, 1950) and Le ragazze di Piazza di Spagna (Three Girls from Rome, 1952), but soon taking on more significant supporting roles, as in Carlo Lizzani's Cronache di poveri amanti (Chronicle of Poor Lovers, 1954). His interpretation of the male romantic lead in Giuseppe De Santis's Giorni d'amore (Days of Love, 1954) earned him his first Nastro d'argento. Thanks to Alessandro Blasetti he was soon paired with Sophia Loren in the first of many films they would make together, beginning with Blasetti's Peccato che sia una canaglia (Too Bad She's Bad, 1954) and La fortuna di essere donna (Lucky to Be a Woman, 1955). Two years later his moving portrayal of Mario in Visconti's Le notti bianche (White Nights, 1957) earned him another Nastro d'argento. Having conquered drama, his considerable talent for comedy was then fully brought to the fore in Mario Monicelli's hilarious I soliti ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958).

   With his reputation now securely established, in the early 1960s he appeared in most of the key films of both established and up-and-coming directors, including Mauro Bolognini's Il bell'Antonio (Bell'Antonio, 1960), Michelangelo Antonioni's La notte (Night, 1961), Valerio Zurlini's Cronaca familiare (Family Diary, 1962), and, perhaps most memorably, as the lovable scoundrel of a husband in Pietro Germi's Divorzio all'italiana (Divorce Italian Style, 1961), a finely modulated interpretation that earned him his first Oscar nomination. By this time, however, he had already become well known to international audiences playing the wayward journalist Marcello in Federico Fellini's landmark film, La dolce vita (1960), for which he had received another Nastro d'argento. He subsequently became Fellini's onscreen alter ego in the Oscar-winning Otto e mezzo (8'A, 1963). At the same time he continued to garner both national and international acclaim playing opposite a fiery Sophia Loren at the peak of her prowess in De Sica's Ieri, oggi e domani (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, 1963), which was awarded the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1965, and Matrimonio all'italiana (Marriage Italian Style, 1964), also nominated for an Oscar.

   In the next decade he continued to work with all the major directors, appearing in, among others, Visconti's Lo straniero (The Stranger, 1967), Ettore Scola's Dramma della gelosia—tutti iparticolari in cronaca (Drama of Jealousy, 1970), Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Allonsanfan (1973), Marco Ferreri's La grande abbuffata (The Grande Bouffe, 1973), and Luigi Comencini's La donna della domenica (The Sunday Woman, 1976). Arguably his best performance during this period was as Gabriele, the homosexual radio journalist in Scola's Una giornata particolare (A Special Day, 1976), a role that saw him again paired with Sophia Loren and that brought out the very best in both of them. In the 1980s he again worked with Fellini in La citta delle donne (The City of Women, 1980) and Ginger e Fred (Ginger and Fred, 1986) and gave a magisterial performance as Casanova in Scola's La nuit de Varennes (That Night in Varennes, 1982). By the end of the 1980s, however, he was tending toward more fatherly roles as in Scola's Che ora e? (What Time Is It? 1989) and Giuseppe Tornatore's Stanno tutti bene (Everybody's Fine, 1990). Nevertheless, in 1994 he was induced by Robert Altman to team up again with Sophia Loren in a reprise of their legendary performance in Marriage Italian Style for Altman's satire on the fashion industry, Pret-a-Porter (Ready to Wear, 1994). After playing the title role in Roberto Faenza's Sostiene Pereira (According to Pereira, 1996) and a man with four personalities in Raul Ruiz's Trois vies et une seule mort (Three Lives and Only One Death, 1996), Mastroianni made his final film appearance in Manoel de Oliviera's Viagem ao Principio do Mundo (Voyage to the Beginning of the World, 1997), where, rather fittingly perhaps, after a life devoted to the cinema, he played the part of an aging film director traveling with a film crew through Portugal in search of the origins of a famous French actor.

   Having already received innumerable prizes for his appearances in some 140 films, in 1997 Mastroianni was awarded both a Special Nastro d'Argento and a David di Donatello for his career in cinema. Before dying he recounted his life story in Marcello Mastroianni: Mi ricordo, si mi ricordo (Marcello Mastroianni: I Remember, 1997), a three-hour documentary directed by his long-time companion, Anna Maria Tato.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira