Valentina Cortese
Birth : 1923-01-01, Milan, Lombardy, Italy
Death : 2019-07-10
History
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Valentina Cortese (January 1, 1923 - July 10, 2019) was an Italian film actress.
The Milan-born actress starred in The House on Telegraph Hill (1951) directed by Robert Wise, and costarring Richard Basehart and William Lundigan. Cortese, aged 28, married Basehart in 1951, and had one son with him before they divorced in 1960.
She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1975 for her performance in François Truffaut's Day for Night.
Cortese appeared in Jules Dassin's Thieves' Highway (1949), Joseph L. Mankiewicz's The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Michelangelo Antonioni's Le Amiche (1955), Gérard Brach's The Boat on the Grass, Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), and in the Franco Zeffirelli projects such as the 1972 film Brother Sun, Sister Moon, his 1977 miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth and the 1993 film Sparrow.
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The moving life and international career of actress Valentina Cortese is acted out by eight Italian actresses who interpret parts of her biography. A rich assortment of stock footage and film clips creates a vibrant portrait of our Diva.
Self
Federico Fellini was one of the most individual and thought provoking directors who based most of his films upon his own reflections, dreams, life events and fantasies, who did not convey any special message for humanity but regarded cinema simply as entertainment. Is there an answer to everything? Can it possibly be? If yes, then life can no longer be so curious, so dynamic, so creative...
Madre Superiora
Catania, Sicilia 1854. A serious epidemic of cholera is hitting the region. Maria a 16 years old novice leaves her convent and returns her home to avoid contamination. Here she finds a difficult situation, in fact her stepmother and her half-sisters prevent Maria to live the normal life of a teenager. In their minds Maria is the promised "bride of God" and a regular life for her is inappropriate. Nino, her handsome neighbor, falls in love for Maria who isn't indifferent to him. But when Maria comes back to her convent the way to become nun is compelled. Now Maria can understand Sister Agata, and realizes she became mad cause a lost and impossible love like the one between Maria and Nino.
The Helicopter Man's Wife (archive footage) (uncredited)
George Abitbol, the classiest man in the world, dies tragically during a cruise. The director of an American newspaper, wondering about the meaning of these intriguing final words, asks his three best investigators, Dave, Peter and Steven, to solve the mystery. (Sixteen French actors dub scenes from various Warner Bros. films to create a parody of Citizen Kane, 1941.)
Serafina Tannenbaum
A young woman who is obsessed with Buster Keaton stays in the sanatorium where the actor was once a patient.
Queen Ariadne / Violet
An account of Baron Munchausen's supposed travels and fantastical experiences with his band of misfits.
Gina Grandi
madre di Guido
Via Montenapoleone in Milan is the ritziest street in the city and here the destinies of several characters, playboys, models and gays cross and diverge.
Rachele Cigno
Tango blu is a night club in Milan where various bizarre characters meet. Among them a womanizing photographer and a porter who works in a slaughterhouse.
Rose Valdez
An active volcano threatens a south Pacific island resort and its guests as a power struggle ensues between the property's developer and a drilling foreman.
Elena Merrill
Once a Satanist who surrendered her soul and body to the devil himself, Carlotta Rhodes begins to regret her tryst with Lucifer when her teenage daughter, Daria, starts showing the evil influence of dear old Dad. Convinced that she can stop the devil's power on earth, Carlotta calls upon an exorcist for help.
Wilma/Leonilde Bosco Casagrande
Film in four episodes, inspired by the chronicle of the time: three mature sisters give themselves to a stranger, Maria tries to escape her husband, two Bolognese spouses quarrel and do not realize that the civil war has broken out, a Neapolitan fan scandalizes a first class compartment ..
Dolores
The arrival of some unwanted visitors interrupts the peaceful Cuban home life of sisters Dolores, Carmen and Elvira, as their presence stirs up unwelcome memories.
Witwe
The aging villain Émile Morland talks his old friend Aristide into helping him with to kidnap the son of a millionaire.
Regina
Nick Hezard, a young con man, wants to avenge the death of a friend of his and organizes a swindle trying to cheat Robert Turner, an American businessman he thinks responsible for his friend's death. He succeeds in getting a hundred thousand swiss francs and uses them to carry out the second part of his plan.
The birth of a nephew upsets the life of Paolo and Carlo who, unable to grow old, try to prove that they are lively.
Grazia Filippini
After his son is kidnapped, a millionaire industrialist seeks revenge, in spite of the potential danger that his rash actions will bring about for his child and another kidnapped boy, the son of a poor mechanic.
Olghina Franchetti
A boorish, snobish toothpaste factory owner, Constantino Nicosia, gives his wife and everyone a hard time having let success and wealth go to his head. But after the superticous Nicosia has an encounter with an elderly gypsy aunt, and a business trip to Romania results in another encounter with a suave vampire, named Count Dragalescu, Nicosia returns with blood-sucking like qualities which makes him re-examine his life and existence.
Elizabeth Blixen
Adaptation of a novel by Carolina Invernizio.
Two writers and their girlfriends visit the castle of an actor who specializes in playing vampire roles. As the night progresses, they begin to wonder if the man is an actor playing a vampire, or a vampire playing an actor.
Anna and Marcello, two wealthy high school students. they would like to consume their Platonic love so far, going against the directives of their parents ... who get in the way to prevent their sexual initiation.
Elisa Rutelli
Two teenage friends conspire to find out how much their youthful sensuality can disrupt one of their households, headed by a dentist and his mentally-ill wife.
Severine
A committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.
Natalia Trotsky
A Stalinist assassin tracks exiled revolutionary Leon Trotsky to Mexico in 1940.
Pica Di Bernardone
In his delirium from his return from war, Francesco Bernardone goes back in his memories to the days when he lived for parties and carnal pleasures. He slowly recovers, but after the illness he is no longer the Francesco that everybody knew. Instead of spending hours in taverns, he meditates on the beauty of God's creatures, soon renouncing his riches and his family with plans to rebuild an abandoned church and his life.
Luisa Sola
Roma.During a clash between demonstrating laborers (whose fight the students have joined) a policeman and a student are both killed. The investigating magistrate - in charge of the case with two commissioners - wants to believe to the version of the police: the student was killed by one of the laborers, while the policeman would have been killed by Massimo Trotti.
Madame Sobieski
In Dublin, the acid-scarred, razor-slashed corpse of a young woman is discovered in the boot of the Swiss Ambassador's limousine. The Ambassador, his family and employees all become immediate suspects. Faced with the problem of diplomatic immunity, the police officer in charge of the case brings in John Norton, an ex-Inspector known for his brutal methods, to carry out an "unoffical" investigation. While Norton develops a relationship with the Ambassdor's attractive daughter, several more gruesome murders occur...
Catherine
Despite their social differences, poor David and the rich Olivier are the best friends. David took the young Eleanor in Olivier's Paris apartment. When Olivier meets her there, he takes her to the country, where the three build a boat on the meadow. Eleanore divided the friends.
Eva
Julien and Agatha appear to be a great couple, loving, caring and seem to feel complete with each other. Though Julien often gives the impression of being interested in other girls, his lover doesn't care all that much and sometimes even looks like she's encouraging him to do that. It all changes when they meet an American woman who'll change their lives and their perception of love.
Mutter
Based on Ivan Turgenev's novella, Erste Liebe is about two young lovers in czarist Russia. One is a 21-year-old woman, the other a young man of sixteen. Things take a tragic turn as the girl (Dominique Sanda as Sanaida) falls in love with the boy's father (Maximilian Schell). This film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 1970's Academy Awards.
Madeleine de Lépine
Ornella
Relatives brawl over the estate of a deceased grandmother who owned an insecticide factory.They stop at nothing, including bumping each other off.
Gabriella (uncredited)
During World War II, Italian villagers hide their wine from the German army.
Lallo's Mother
When his father dies, young lad travels to Milan to attend the funeral and decides to follow in his father's footsteps as a gigolo. He is successful at finding rich women to prey on, but finds himself caught up in a bidding war.
Countess Bozo Bedoni
A dictatorial film director hires an unknown actress to play the lead role in a planned movie biography of a late, great Hollywood star.
Maria
A young Gallic heiress Christine is looking for her long-lost brother in Algeria. She's not looking for danger, but that's what comes in her way from every nook and cranny.
Valentina
Middle-aged Giulietta grows suspicious of her husband, Giorgio, when his behavior grows increasingly questionable. One night when Giorgio initiates a seance amongst his friends, Giulietta gets in touch with spirits and learns more about herself and her painful past. Slightly skeptical, but intrigued, she visits a mystic who gives her more information -- and nudges her toward the realization that her husband is indeed a philanderer.
Self
A behind-the-scenes documentary about director Michelangelo Antonioni as he's shooting his segment of The Three Faces, a vehicle for Soraya, the former empress of Persia. Featuring interviews with Monica Vitti, Tonino Guerra and more.
Irma
While visiting his favorite resort village during winter, a writer investigates the apparent suicide of a woman he was infatuated with.
Mathilda Miller
Carla Zachanassian had a child by Serge Miller as a teenager. When Serge refused to marry her, she was driven out of town. By her own wit and cunning, she has returned as a multi-millionaire for a visit. The town lays out the red carpet expecting big things from Carla, only to learn that her sole purpose is to see Serge Miller killed...
Laura Craven-Torrani
A tourist witnesses a murder and finds herself caught up in a series of bloody killings.
Eleonora Duse
Julia
Epic account of the thief Barabbas, who was pardoned for his crimes and spared crucifixion when Pilate offered the Israelites a choice to pardon Barabbas or Jesus. Struggling with his spirituality, Barabbas goes through many ordeals leading him to the gladiatorial arena, where he tries to win his freedom and confront his inner demons, ultimately becoming a follower of the man who was crucified in his place.
Erica Bernardi
Set in Italy, the story takes place in this very country, during WW2, where German occupation army ruled everything, just before the allied forces came, in 1944. Crawford plays here a doctor whose son has been shot by the Germans. Of course he has no more taste in life. He continues his work as a German officers' physician. One day, he throws a bomb just in the middle of German troops. Many soldiers and officers are killed. Some time later, the lead officer of the Nazis troops suspects the doctor to be the responsible of the explosion. He lets him know that he himself knows...
Three vignettes about couples trying to get together and the problems that continue to keep them apart.
Fanny
England, first half of the 19th century. Edmund Kean is a celebrated theatre actor, notorious for his tumultuous private life. He is in love with the beautiful countess Koefeld, wife of the Danish ambassador, to the consternation of his friend, the Prince of Wales. He is also hounded by Anna Damby, who wants to become an actress to escape a marriage to Lord Mewill.
Eloisa, the Schoolmistress
Professor Hamilton, a naive Nuclear scientist who once thought bombs were good for humanity, realizes his mistake and runs away from his inventions. He hides in Calabuch, a beautiful seaside town where people still believe in humor and friendship.
Nene
Clelia, a self-made woman coming from humble means, travels back to Turin, her hometown, to scout locations for the successful Roman atelier she works for. At the hotel, she encounters some upper middle-class women and she finds herself drawn into their friendships.
Teresa Casati
Mathilde Wesendonk
Director William Dieterle's 1956 film biography of classical composer Richard Wagner stars Carlos Thompson, Yvonne De Carlo, Rita Gam, Alan Badel and Valentina Cortese.
Eleanora Torlato-Favrini
Has-been director Harry Dawes gets a new lease on his career when independently wealthy Kirk Edwards hires him to write and direct a film. They go to Madrid to find Maria Vargas, a dancer who will star in the film.
Three jailbirds - a surgeon, a robber and a wrongly convicted man must adjust to their lives once released from prison.
An Italian historical comedy film consisting of three segments, based on three stage plays by Anton Chekhov.
Vally
When "Tamara" throws herself from the window of their brothel, her colleagues are made to realise that a new law will close down the source of their livelihood. The girls must now find honest work.
Maria Brentano / Brent / Lena Collins
This tale of intrigue finds Valentina Cortese involved in an assassination plot. She helps the police apprehend the conspirators after an innocent bystander is accidentally killed.
Victoria Kowelska
Concentration camp survivor Victoria Kowelska finds herself involved in mystery, greed, and murder when she assumes the identity of a dead friend in order to gain passage to America.
Elizabeth, Princess Tarakanova
During the eighteenth century the Empress of Russia sends her lover to kidnap her rival for the throne.
Luana
After living abroad for several years, journalist John Royer returns to the United States just after the U.S. enters World War II. His boast that he could easily smuggle rubber, a key wartime natural resource, out of Malaya has him tasked with doing just that. He manages to get someone from his past, Carnaghan, sprung from Alactraz and together they head off to South East Asia posing as Irishmen. Once there, Carnaghan lines up some of his old cronies and with Royer and a few plantation owners plans to smuggle the rubber out from under the Japanese army's watchful eye.
Rica
Nick Garcos comes back from his tour of duty in World War II planning to settle down with his girlfriend, Polly Faber. He learns, however, that his father was recently beaten and burglarized by mob-connected trucker Mike Figlia, and Nick resolves to get even. He partners with prostitute Rica, and together they go after Mike, all the while getting pulled further into the local crime underworld.
Zoraida
A hypnotist uses his powers for revenge against King Louis XV's court.
Alida Morrosini
An aspiring composer, in the British Air Force for WWII, is downed in Italy and rescued by an Italian girl. He returns home to his wife, inspired to write an opera and aware that he's fallen in love with his rescuer.
Maria Pilar
Ester
Matthew, a rich nationalist Jew and a contemporary of Jesus, regards the latter as an obstacle in this struggle to free their people from the Roman yoke by means of revolt.
Cosetta
The story of Jean Valjean, still pursued by Javert, continues with a love developing between Cosette and radical student Marius, a blackmailing attempt by suspicious innkeeper Thenardier, and a climax on the barricades of Paris.
Fantine
Jean Valjean, pursued through the years for a minor infraction by the implacable policeman Javert, attempts to create a life for himself and for his adopted daughter Cosette amid the revolutionary struggles of France.
Barbara
The story of the most infamous bandit in Romagna, who robbed from the rich to give to the poor.
La ragazza
In a post-war Rome (1946) a cat burglar inadvertently saves the life of a would-be suicide man who returns from the war to find that he has been betrayed by his fiancée while fighting in the war. From that moment the thief takes the ex-soldier under his wing. They leave house together for a night full of misadventures. In a streets of Rome they meet the struggling typist who can’t pay her rent and opts to street life; a wandering amnesiac who lost his memory and keeps asking everyone “Do you recognize me?”. Thieves, gamblers, hookers, policemen, soldiers and endless chain of cigarette-smoking and alcohol/espresso-drinking.
Maria
Valentina
A host of college girls take different life paths in the Italy of the 1930s.
Marianna
Valentina
Maria Renda / Luisa Renda
Italian film from 1942.
Lisabetta
In Florence, at the time of Lorenzo de Medici, known also as Lorenzo the Magnificent, the aristocrat brothers Chiaramantesi rule with an iron fist the streets of the city. Ruthless and fierce, the two brothers have chosen as their special victim the innocent and harmless Giannetto. Even though determined to not react to the cruel pranks of the brothers, Giannetto is forced to take a stand when Ginevra, a beautiful girl that works in the Chiaramantesi household, is dragged into the game. To defend his honor and protect the girl, Giannetto works out a fiendish plot that will end in blood and madness.
Madge
Directed by Gennaro Righelli.
Nerina
An Italian emigrant, who found fame and success in America, comes back to his hometown after over twenty years.
Alina
