GThe eyes do not lie. Although deliberately aged for script needs, with gray wig and circled eyes, Donatella Finocchiaro, 55 years old, never loses that intense and profound gaze that characterizes it. Perhaps his expressiveness was needed to give energy to the character, true and dramatic, of Rosa Balistreri, a very famous Sicilian singer -songwriter between the 60s and 80s, originally from Licata.
Very hard mother -in -law in the series The lions of Sicily by Paolo Genovese, Carlo’s Stalker Verdone in Love manual 3 by Giovanni Veronesi and unhappy wife in Acob On Netflix, the actress is now in the room in the biopic on the artist in The love I have by Paolo Licata. He interprets the last years of life when he tries to get closer to his daughter and takes stock of his troubled existence.
It is a tragic story, of courage, redemption and determination that of the singer -songwriter, unknown to the most perhaps now, but then considered “The voice of Sicily”, “the southern songwriter”, Friend of Dario Fo, and ended up in Canzonissima in the 70s.
Donatella Finocchiaro: “Rosa Balistreri embodied the scream of women”
«Rosa Balistreri at the time embodied the scream of those women who felt they had to say” no “; While I interpreted it, my grandmother reminded me, a tireless trade union activist, crossed the Sicilian countryside to bring potatoes and a little meat to the destitute “signs the actress in a moment of pause from Thérèsethe protagonist of the homonymous work of Émile Zola in the theater directed by Stefano Ricci.
To be precise, it is located in Bassano del Grappa where it moves continuously outdoors because the line goes and goes. A very difficult life that of Rosa Balistrerimarked by physical and moral violence, yet she managed to emerge. The song saved her in a context of harassment, misery, murders and family dramas. Described the emotions of the marginalized like her, of Patriarchate in the 1940s in Sicily. «His was a political singing, now no one remembers her almost anymore, not even my peers. We wanted to tell it for this, to keep its memory alive. Otherwise it must be lost ».
Carmen Consoli signed the soundtrack of the film
To sing he had “coach” Carmen Consoli, the “Sintessa”, who also appears in the film and has signed the soundtrack of the film.
Carmen Consoli has always been his great fan, he played his music with the guitar already at twelve years old. He explained to me that Rosa Balistreri had a sound of voice, a stamp and extraordinary vocal power, out of the norm.
All his women on TV and cinema have a great tempo, like Rosa Balistreri: is it a choice or a coincidence?
Sophia Loren always wondered why strong women should interpret. Why not, what else should we interpret, the Gattemorte? The condescending and silent women who always say yes do not belong to me. I feel the duty to interpret examples of heroines that fight and conquer their independence, at the time as now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzj3qurzay
Donatella Finocchiaro: “I thought of making myself a nun”
And to think that in the beginning he wanted to be a lawyer.
I said “no” to that career. Life always puts you in front of the choices. At twenty years you are not ready to decide what to do, let alone university. I was tormented. Then I understood that the choices fortunately are never definitive. Even today I could give up everything and go to Brazil to sell the kilos with meat or open a restaurant here in Bassano del Grappa.
Is it true that he wanted to make himself a nun?
There was a mystical period in my life (laughs). The spirituality has always accompanied me. I also meditate while I pass the vacuum cleaner. In reality I try to find a meaning in the things I do every day. Every evening, in the theater, we must repeat the same things on stage, the dialogues, the monologues, as stated the text of Stefano Ricci. So what is the meaning of this to repeat avalanches of words a million times? “Men are unable to love a woman who is never there”
“Men are unable to love a woman who is never there”
Did you find an answer?
The only thing that makes sense is the link with my daughter. The rest, like the love of a partner, matters up to a certain point. In the sense that I lost boyfriends and companions on the street because of “fault” of my work. It is the fate of us artists, of those who have fire inside. Yet, I keep trusting me, to believe in people.
In what sense?
I mean that men are unable to love a woman who is never there. So I sacrifice part of my emotional life for my work. It ends up finding partners from whom I must then separate because they do not hold my lifestyle. However, I’m already well on this front. Today I am able to understand when a relationship no longer works, and they move away before hurting myself. I will sooner or later be an enlightened man who will see me once a month and will be happy the same. And in front of which I will not try awe.
Carmen Consoli, in the center, with Donatella Finocchiaro
Donatella Finocchiaro: “A year of commitments”
Donatella Finocchiaro at the Rome Film Festival in October 2024 (Photo by Daniele Venturelli/Wireimage)
She, Donatella Finocchiaro: let’s go.
That’s right, me! It is absurd, everyone tells me “but you are strong, beautiful, aware!”. Yet, when I like a man – which is now very rare – I become red or happens to me to feel blocked, like a twelve -year -old girl if the floor turns to me. I am ashamed, I embarrass, I portray me. I know, it’s frightening (it breaks out laughing). What does it propose on the horizon in the meantime?
Several projects in theater and cinema, where I just ended Ten days,The new film by Elisa Amoruso with Stefano Accorsi and Miriam Leone. And then I have an important purpose. Which? Educate my daughter on life well.
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