L‘unbearable lightness of being. So says the caption of one of his latest posts on Instagram. Sveva Alviti walks on a beach, at sunset, wearing a baseball cap and jeans shorts. Then he turns, smiles and spreads his arms in a hymn to happiness.
A photograph that seems like an oxymoron compared to the meaning of famous novel of the same name by Milan Kundera, manifesto of a generation – where it is underlined that everything is always in question, and it is taught that ultimately you have to get lost to find yourself. In the absence of permanent balances. In fact, upon closer inspection, the thirty-nine-year-old model and actress, Roman by birth, but now Parisian by adoption, also reflects all of this.
Sveva Alviti: «I identified myself too much Dalida»
After his performance in Dalida by Lisa Azuelos, which earned her a César for best emerging actress in 2018went through a dark phase in his life where he came to terms, he underlines, with his “dark” side: he was like thatidentified with the character to collapse in his own fragility.
In the meantime it is also separated from longtime partner Anthony Delon and questioned the analysis. «Now I’m in a pink phase, as if I had decided to give more color to my existence, perhaps also because I’m on a new path» he says from Rome where he is filming the second edition of Nudes 2a RaiPlay Original series directed by Laura Lucchetti and Marco Danieli.
And, in fact, as proof, on the recent catwalk of the festival Cinema of Venice, Barbie Ermanno Scervino has arrived in pink, a hymn to femininity. «I chose it to buck the trend of my instinct which would always want me to be dressed in black or in any case in neutral colours, almost as if I openly wanted to exalt only the soul instead of beauty».
Sveva Alviti: «Now I’m having a good time»
A choice that would seem to be a declaration of form and content: in the cinema she never chooses beautiful and impossible roles. Are you so embarrassed by being attractive?
It’s a trip, a paranoia that I have, I’m only interested in arthouse cinema and consequently I adopt a dress code that is anything but flashy, as if a choice had to necessarily correspond to a style. For example, in Aka, released in June on Netflix with Eric Cantona, I play a woman with scars on her face and brown hair. The opposite of how I appear. There’s actually nothing wrong with wanting to be feminine. But that’s how I am. And anyone who knows me knows it.
We women never give ourselves a 10 and praise, as highlighted by research from our newspaper on Body Positivity. We are always critical.
I believe that now the worst enemy of us women is social media with their glossy filters where we can appear beautiful and successful. Instead, fashion has more or less changed, it follows the times, it has become inclusive, it sends signals, at least apparently. When I was on the catwalk, we’re talking about 2003, if you didn’t have a hip circumference of eighty-nine you couldn’t go on the catwalk. And it happened to me. I was seventeen, I was in New York alone, it was difficult to give up even just a simple hamburger. I wanted to eat.
Sveva Alviti: «I will be in Nudes 2»
Size discrimination also happens in the cinema. Giovanna Mezzogiorno has just made Unfitting, a short film against bodyshaming on set.
I haven’t seen it yet, it makes me sad to know that more than skill and talent, the physicality of us actors is uselessly leveraged. Also because by definition we are transformative, we must be fat or thin, brown or blond depending on the script, and therefore it is an unacceptable prejudice. And then, honestly, no body is perfect. Each of us recalls a beauty in our own way.
In Nudes 2 we talk about revenge porn in the adult world.
It is a very current topic, on which more and more awareness is needed, especially in schools. I am scared of this world that wants, wants, wants and demands, where there are feminicides and gang rapes, where every type of sensitivity is dead. This is why I am determined to always and only choose projects of social denunciation. In France I shot the short series H24 with Diane Kruger and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi: 24 hours in the life of a woman who suffers abuse at all hours in different ways.
Sveva Alviti: «I suffered unwanted attention»
Have you ever suffered harassment as a model and actress?
Let’s say I suffered unwanted attention. I defended myself, but as absurd as it may seem, I only became aware of it years later with the #MeToo movement. I was very young, I thought that certain ambiguous behaviors were normal. No, they weren’t. This is why so much education is needed among young girls. And more kindness. Values that should be recovered.
There is a need, in fact, judging by the four thousand people gathered in Milan, a couple of weeks ago, for the meeting with the Indian guru Sadhguru. Massimo Gramellini in his Caffè in the Corriere della Sera asked the political world to ask itself some questions about this “existential malaise”.
I understand it, I am spiritual, Buddhist, I practice Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, a mantra that ascribes to the title of the Lotus Sutra. As in all things, individual evolution is needed. If only there were more attention to our human revolution, we would live in a less aggressive world. And we always return there, to social media, with their model of a perfect life.
Sveva Alviti: «With Anthony Delon we will always love each other»
She too, however, posts images of herself in couture dresses. Which alternates, at times, with important quotes.
I just use them for fun, but I also like to publish posts that make sense, to send positive messages. What did you learn from your dark period? As my analyst says, happiness is not forever. We all suffer, it is part of life, but it is in the “no” moments that we must learn to “see ourselves”. They’re the ones where we take a long leap. For the rest I understood that I am a hypersensitive person. To wit, I cried yesterday. I confess it without problems.
She was supposed to get married to Anthony Delon. You were talking about children, family, then what happened?
In life, separation happens. However, we remained on good terms. Breaking up is always traumatic, but we found a new way to be together. He will always be part of my life. We are souls who have experienced a great love, we were together for four years, but if it went like this it is because it had to go like this. I’m fatalistic.
Is he single now?
We are both alone. Maybe one day he will marry another woman and I will have children with another man, but nothing and no one will share the beauty that was between us, it is only ours.
So, what did you learn from love?
Which is something very difficult, complicated and requires great compromises…
«Between heel 12 and Birkenstock? Hmm….»
Upcoming projects?
A “social” film as a director which will be entitled Meilleur espoir féminin. It will be an Italy-France co-production. It will encourage young people. But you are talking about it in 2025 for the release.
Returning to your current pink period, and therefore to Barbie, to the “cult” and pop film of 2023, are you from the 12 heel or Birkenstock party?
Birkenstock always. As for the heels too…
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