“I think of myself as being an actress by chance.  I began my film career at the tender age of 16 when a talent scout spotted me, I just wanted to earn some money to buy myself a Vespa scooter and was an ordinary high school student.... I like contemporary actresses like Laura Morante, Margherita Buy, whose naturalness I adore.  They take roles that I would have been happy to do but I was relegated to films where I criticised the screenplay and the dialogue.”
     This appears to be Rossana Podestà’s one regret. Despite her long and illustrious career, Podestà considers herself to be something of an anomalous actor because she was never part of the star system. She crossed genres and played numerous different types of women.  She began her film career in the fifties with directors like Bragaglia, Camerini.  Steno and ended with Giuseppe Bertolucci’s Segreti segreti in 1985.  Podestà withdrew to private life and refused invitations, including one from RAI to present a programme about “The Extraordinary History of Italy” and chose to live her life quietly with mountaineer Walter Bonatti.
     She graciously accepted to come to today’s tribute organised by the Made in Italy association at the Municipal Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art where her many friends and former colleagues gathered.  The Palazzo delle Esposizioni has arranged a review of her films from 16-19 May.
     Rome Cultural Affairs councillor, Gianni Borgna did the honours today and spoke warmly of Podestà’s talent, beauty and versatile aptitude for communicating with people as an artist.
     Steve Della Casa, the head of the Turin Film Festival spoke about Podestà’s legendary sword n’ sandals films where her Latin beauty was the ideal expression of Imperial Rome.
     Journalist Laura Delli Colli took us through the actresses’ career from a shy adolescent in the early sixties who metamorphosed into “the vamp next door”.  Podestà was a style icon for Italian women.  Patrizia Carrano reminded us of Podestà’s inner light, that prevailed over three decades of Italian film from the romantic neorealism of Guardie e Ladri, Le ragazze di San Frediano, her “Imperial” films like Helen of Troy and The Slave of Rome.  Then came the “femme fatale” of I sette uomini d’oro and Le ore nude and erotic comedies like Paolo il caldo and Il prete sposato.
     Amongst the numerous personalities who came to celebrate Rossana Podestà were fellow actors Philippe Leroy and Lando Buzzanca, directors Antonio Margheriti, Giorgio Capitani and Luigi Cozzi who made Hercules with her and also Tonino Delli Colli, whose photography made her into one of the most envied women of her day.
     Podestà smiled graciously through all of this and was very surprised to see her photograph on the cover of Cahiers du Cinéma for her work in La rete directed by Mexico’s Emilio Fernandez.  “I loved that film. Rosaria was a perfect fit for my wild side.”
”My favourite director was Valerio Zurlini whose first film, Le ragazze di San Frediano she starred in.
     Her one regret is having allowed her ex-husband, Marco Vicario, to dub her voice in Le ore nude, based on a story by Alberto Moravia.  “He dubbed me and that excluded me from the Silver Ribbons.  I have never forgiven him.”