Giovanna Ralli: “But the world hasn’t changed me”

Giovanna Ralli energetic grandmother for Jasmine Trinca

“Since my husband passed away nine years ago, I hadn’t wanted to work, although they had offered me various parts. Reading this script, however, I immediately said yes: the script is extraordinary. And Jasmine is a wonderful woman, very sweet, very good on set. And I know what I’m talking about: I was lucky enough to be chosen by important directors – in addition to Scola, Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Luigi Zampa, Carlo Lizzani … By the way, it is the centenary of the birth of both Lizzani and Ugo Tognazzi: together we had shot The bitter life. And it is the centenary of Testaccio, the district of Rome where I was born: I would like to greet the “testaccini” ». (laughs heartily)

Giovanna Ralli, childhood in Testaccio

And there, too, his relationship with cinema was born.
I was six, they were looking for extras for De Sica’s film Children look at us: I just had to run in a small garden. At the time they made you up for film needs (if you didn’t darken your face, you came too white) and I, back home, refused to take off the greasepaint! (laughs) The curious thing is, after 12-13 years, they cast me as the dressmaker in an episode of Villa Borgheseand there De Sica was my suitor.

Meanwhile, no movies?
I didn’t have the sacred fire! After the war, there was a lot of hope and little money. So, at the age of 13, I went to Cinecittà to be an assistant with a friend. On the set I couldn’t wait for the basket to arrive: I preferred the red one, with pasta and meat, to the white one, with rice and chicken. We had suffered from hunger, from cold; I had lost two uncles, my father’s brothers. During the bombing we ran downstairs, we clung to mum… I remember everything about the war. All. I understand what they can feel now in Ukraine and I am with them. Terrible. Terrible. But I am sure that a rebirth will come soon for them too.

How was your postwar period?
Dad, who was a baker and used to cycle from Testaccio to Piazza Fiume (very far), decided to move to Via Tirso: it seemed to us a wonderful neighborhood. Above us lived Massimo Girotti and I was fascinated by him: I had admired him at the Excelsior cinema in The iron crown. I was waiting for him at the window and, when I saw him coming, I would put on mum’s high-heeled shoes and run downstairs, and then go back upstairs with him to the elevator. And Girotti, when we met again, he remembered that little girl … (she laughs heartily).

He was resourceful.
No, actually. Never had particular dreams: I had applied in a toothpaste factory, but the recruitment came when Villa Borghese came out and they talked so well about me that I concluded: then this is my way! And I never stopped, I worked with everyone, Deaf, Mastroianni …

Special memories?
Alberto is in my heart: he is Roman, I am Roman. We saw each other often, he always sent me flowers: it’s not true that he was stingy, he was a generous man.

Was he courting her?
No, what a courtship! With Alberto I would have laughed ‘! How much fun we had in impersonating the two “broccolari”, the two fruit sellers who – from the market – meet in Cannes for an audition. But Marcello was also an excellent companion: there was a wonderful harmony because he too – like me – did not act. And thank goodness, acting is bad!

Weren’t you acting?
Acting makes you fake. We interpreted, it’s different: we got into the skin of the character, which leaves you natural, true. I have to thank the great directors and screenwriters of the time who wrote perfect roles for me. And not only that: they competed to send me books. How come? Having – unfortunately – not studied (I had stopped in the fifth grade), I was eager to learn: with the first pennies I had earned I had hired a kind of tutor. I remember that Sergio Amidei gave me as a gift War and peace: for me it was a bit “tough”, as Elide says about The Three Musketeers (laughs). But he was inflexible: “You have to read it five times and then you call me.” Buum, hang up my phone! (laughs) Rossellini gave me as a gift Ides of March by Thornton Wilder… I was pampered. And encouraged: if Garinei and Giovannini had not insisted, I would not have thrown myself into A pair of wings (the 1957 musical with Renato Rascel, ed). And if Scola hadn’t insisted, I wouldn’t have brought A Particular Day After a film in which Sophia Loren was perfect to the theater.

Giovanna Ralli, 1966. Unforgettable Elide with Vittorio Gassman in We loved each other so much by Ettore Scola (1974). (Contrast)

How did you invest your first savings?
Paintings. I started with a Guttuso, a Cagli, then a De Chirico. It wasn’t an investment, though. I loved painting, my mother was very good at drawing: in one room I hung all her female portraits of her, there will be about sixty.

Instead she was portrayed by Guttuso.
Yes, six times: I have one, he sold the others. And I also have a portrait by Carlo Levi and one by Alberto Sughi, less known but just as good.

A funny Giovanna Ralli photographed in her hotel room in Milan in 1957. (Photo by Keystone / Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

Among his satisfactions, there is also the call from Hollywood.
In 1964 Blake Edwards – seeing If You Permit Let’s Talk About Women, Scola’s debut – offered me an audition. I left for Los Angeles by ship (I was Raffaello’s godmother) and made the crossing studying English with a coach. I studied hard enough, evidently: “Mrs. Ralli, you have just the time to go to Rome and prepare a trunk: you will be here for six months!”. Beautiful months.

Why did she come back?
Why did I have to stay? An Italian works only if she plays an Italian character, she remains a foreigner.

Giovanna Ralli at the preview of General Della Rovere with Vittorio De Sica (1959). (Photo by Hulton Archive / Getty Images)

Does love have anything to do with this choice?
No. I’ve only had two loves. The first was Valerio Zurlini: we fell in love when I was 18 and we were shooting The girls of San Frediano. He was married, however after six months I gave in. There was this clandestine relationship for three years, then he separated but there was no divorce. My parents, who had given me a Catholic upbringing, were against this union, and I was unable to disobey.

He will have a bit of it with Catholic education …
No, on the contrary. And since my husband passed away (Ettore Boschi, ed) I got even closer to the church. He was the second love. He finally arrived when I was 42: we got married in three months! He was a lawyer expert in family law, it was he who brought the DNA proof to Italy. After his death I spent two years at home without ever, ever, ever going out. Passion had turned into tenderness, which is even more precious: holding hands, caressing each other, being together, speaking. I always feel him close, I speak to him.

What about Michael Caine? And Sergio Amidei?
With Amidei there was absolutely nothing: I know Wikipedia writes it, but it’s false. Intelligent, cultured, he helped me and we loved each other very much. That’s all. With Michael, on the other hand, it was a (beautiful) story that lasted six months. We knew it would end: he went to America, I would never join him. I would never have married a colleague: it sounds strange to me for a man to be an actor, I don’t know why (and he laughs).

Giovanna Ralli, left, with Michael Caine in 1968. (Contrast). TM and Copyright (c) 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. All Rights Reserved

Now I confess one thing: my favorite line from We loved each other so much is not from Elide, but from Nicola / Stefano Satta Flores: “We thought we were changing the world, and instead the world has changed us”.
Eh, too true … But certainly the world has not changed me: I remained what I was, and I am interested in the world. I live with books, friends, family; I cook, I go shopping. At the Acqua Acetosa market, in the morning at 8, I always met Paolo Villaggio and Dino Risi …

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