TO Milan is perceived as 40 degrees and suffocating humidity but when Caterina Murino, 45, gets out of the taxi, in a little black summer dress, porcelain skin and no make-up, it seems that the summer heat has no effect on her. Yet she says she is tired, she is very busy. Sardinian and Italian actress (in that order) but very international – we remember it in Casino Royalebut also in The seed of discord by Pappi Corsicato, in many films abroad, from America to China, and in the recent My brother, my sister – does not have a day off until January 1, 2024.
Caterina Murino, godmother of the Venice Film Festival 2023
In Paris, where he has lived for twenty years, in August he begins rehearsals for a play that will be staged in September. Trap for one man. Meanwhile, he’s filming in Turin The Opera!, a film by Davide Livermore, director of opera and prose, which reinterprets the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in a pop key. Between one and the other, the prestigious appointment with the Venice Film Festival (from 30 August to 9 September), where she will be the godmother. Not bad for one former aspiring pediatrician who, having failed the Medicine test twice, decided to change his ways.
Caterina Murino. when she learned that she had been chosen for the role of godmother in Venice, she said: it’s a great gift. Why?
“It’s a huge honor and a homecoming. I haven’t been to Italy for a while, if we exclude Livermore’s film, which is in any case shot in English. I believe in these years that I have contributed to creating – in my niche – a small bridge between Italy and Italy in the world. variety wrote that with me the role of godmother in Venice becomes more international. Here, I hope to bring my knowledge of the sets to many countries. I have some ideas to submit to Alberto Barberathe artistic director of the Exhibition, to ensure that the role of godmother, not my person, leaves something different, also in the future».
Can you tell us something about Davide Livermore’s film?
“It’s all madness, fantastic, something you’ve never seen before. We shoot in a virtual set, an immense space where images appear that seem real and are not, we can enter the Scala in Milan and go out on a gondola in Venice to end up in New York. It’s a pop opera, there are sopranos and tenors and four actors: besides me, Fanny Ardant, Rossy de Palma and Vincent Cassel. I will be the caretaker of the Ades hotel. The productive machine is gigantic, we cry, we laugh, we love each other. And above all we have fun, which is essential in my profession, given that we don’t do open-heart operations».
With what criterion does Caterina Murino choose the films to interpret?
“From the script. A great director can make a mediocre film and a newcomer a wonderful film. I want to read everything, the synopses are not enough for me. With Livermore I had already worked for the Prima della Scala in 2020, during the Covid, in the unforgettable show To see the stars where I read three monologues. Here the idea of the actors in a play takes up a bit. What I am experiencing is unique, in its strangeness».
She is Sardinian and Italian, but has lived in Paris for twenty years. Did she want to leave her country?
“No. They called me for a movie in 2004, The enquete ran (The Corsican Bandit), with Jean Reno and Christian Clavier. I didn’t know French, I learned it in four months. During the shooting they called me for a second film. And when I started shooting the third came out the first, which in France it was a huge success: even today when it goes on TV it reaches 8-10 million viewers».
One thing leads to another?
“Exactly, it happened. If I had to choose, I would have chosen London, because I spoke better English. London came then, with Casino Royale. I started working more in France and I stayed».
Caterina Murino, did you settle well among the Parisians?
«Apart from the fact that “authentic” Parisians are very few and you have to look for them, I have to say yes. I don’t frequent the Italian community. Many don’t believe it but the French love Italy and know our culture better than we do. My friends are French and so is my partner. My home is in Paris and I love it».
Does she still change boyfriend every three years?
“Not anymore. With Edward we are in sixth. It’s just a pity that he can’t speak Italian, he just doesn’t get into his head. In my opinion, he understands everything but pretends not to.”
He has also made films in India and China. How did she find herself?
“Actually I shot the Bollywood film in a chalet in Switzerland. The production had brought everything from home, including the cooks. I went to India for the promotion: I toured 20 cities in two weeks. A massacre, but wonderful. What Indians and Chinese have in common is that on their sets there is never any dead time between one scene and another. You finish one and the other is ready. They are war machines. I lived in China for four years. I made one children’s film first, then another, and I opened three festivals. My Chinese agent recently wrote to tell me that Covid is finally over, and to ask me when I will be free. I replied that in January I will be able to return to China, and that I feel like it, because I miss it».
How did they know you in China?
“Thanks to the James Bond film. The Chinese channel has since opened. I love their culture, I have seen amazing water shows that America dreams of. The Chinese are shy, kind, loyal. Japan is different, I lived there too».
He has traveled everywhere!
«Well, maybe I don’t know much about South America, even if I’ve been to Brazil and I shot two films in Argentina. I’ve been to Australia, not New Zealand. But always for business trips. The only one I did on my own was in Sri Lanka, together with a gemologist friend. We wandered together for ten days visiting the mines, looking for stones.’
Caterina Murino with Alessandro Preziosi in My brother, my sister (2021).
You have a jewelery line, Caterina Murino jewellery, which is above all a tribute to the tradition of Sardinian filigree. How is this business going?
“I’m very satisfied. I design, look for stones and produce jewels that come made by Sardinian artisans and sold in a Parisian boutique. I try to encourage young people to continue on the watermark path, but the sector is in great difficulty. Twenty years ago there were 200 artisans, now only 18. I don’t work with silver, I prefer yellow, white, pink and even black gold. In France, land of jewelers, they help me a lot. Last year a major hotel chain sold my Filigree Chocolate Easter Eggs. Inside were my dad’s myrtle chocolates. They were snapped up, there was a waiting list. All proceeds went to theAmrefthe association of which I am and will always be an ambassador».
Does anyone help you?
“No, I can’t afford anything except to pay the craftsmen.”
What does Caterina Murino do in her spare time? Stray dogs
“Eduard made me take it two kittens, Illitia and her son Hercule. Since then I have approached the world of animals, which was very far from me. When I have free time, I take care of transporting animals from a shelter to their new home when they are adopted. In France there is an association, Gli angeli dei binari, which collaborates with the railways. It’s all very well organised. I go to pick up a stray dog in a shelter, and take it by train to its new destination. I put a mat on the floor, a bowl for water and we’re good to go. The dog lies down very well next to me, I’ve never had any problems».
So if he has a hole in his agenda, will he dedicate it to strays?
“Yes. I found out that I have a free Monday. I’ve already made myself available. I just made with a Sardinian agency campaign against the abandonment of animals, in view of the summer».
Vacation?
«Nothing, because in August I start rehearsals for the theater (he shows the show poster)».
Caterina Murino. Photographer Nicola De Rosa. Fashion Editor Valentina Fino. Makeup Donatella Ferrari using Armani Beauty Luminous Silk. Hair Francesco Avolio @WM using Kérastase Elixir Ultime Oil. Versace shirtdress. Clash de Cartier earrings. Panthere de Cartier ring.
In our cover photo (above) she is very beautiful, as in reality. But how come she didn’t erase the fine line near her lip?
“I’m against Photoshop. I saw the wrinkle in the photo, I said don’t touch it, and they didn’t touch it. My face is not that of a 20 year old. But today’s cosmetic surgery fails to rejuvenate, rather it distorts the morphology. Furthermore, wrinkles don’t appear overnight, nature ages you slowly, and over time you learn to accept yourself and feel good about your body. I ask myself: those who make a makeover, and change their face from one day to the next, how do they manage to look in the mirror?»
Has she always gotten along with her beauty?
«When I was little I was chubby, I looked like Disney’s hippo in a tutu, because I danced. At school I was victim of bullying, which certainly wasn’t today’s. But that little girl who was teased stayed inside me. Then I changed, with the pros and cons. I got the role of Bond girl because I’m not Genevieve. But I lost roles because they considered me too beautiful. I’ve never really used it, I’ve always tried to go further. That’s why in Venice I wouldn’t want to stop and make a picture on the red carpet».
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