DOlce, careful, always overlooking and maternal: so we will remember forever Pia velsi in the role of Nonna Trieste in the 90s film icon of Mario Monicelli, Snakes. The actress – whose real name is Elpidia Sorbo – went out at the age of 101 years After a long career in the world of entertainment. The role of Nonna Trieste consecrated it as an author’s actress and made it immortal in the collective imagination as symbol of an Italy that no longer exists. A masterful interpretation, the one next to Paolo Panelliand beating heart of the Bitter satire of Monicelli on the family: that complex nucleus which should be a cradle of love and solidarity – supported by the figure of the woman – but which in the end For selfishness, hypocrisies and kept grudges, it comes (in this case literally) blew up in the air.
Pia Velsi, a life dedicated to cinema and theater
Born to L’Aquila on March 31, 1924 and grown to Naples, Pia Velsi began his career in the 1940s as a singer under the pseudonym of “New flower”. The acting came almost by chance, to Petruzzelli Theater of Bariwhen he replaced Rosalia Maggio. From there he no longer stopped: variety, Neapolitan scripts, author cinema, television fiction. A career built step by step, always with discretion, but with an indisputable talent. Has worked with directors like Renato Castellani, Nanni Loy, Luciano De Crescenzo, Steno and Massimo Troisiup to the consecration with Monicelli. On TV it was also aunt Filomena in All crazy for love e has made several advertisements such as the spot with Alessandro Del Piero and Cristina Chiabotto for olive grove water.
The courage to tell loneliness at 90
Pia Velsi also met the other side of the show: the one behind the spotlight and made of precariousness and loneliness. At almost 90 years, the actress had the courage to denounce her condition of economic difficulty: “I live with 500 euros of pension, but the rent costs me 900”.
Without children, without close relatives, she had come one step away from the eviction. A cry that moved the whole of Italy and that the Community of Sant’Egidio he collected, accompanying it in recent years with the program “Long live the elderly!”. Second Handleto stay next to her until the end in the Esquiline district of Rome, they were the friend Antonio Del Giudice and the assistant Isabella.
Pia Velsi and his latest life lesson
Pia Velsi was not just an actress: it was A woman capable of reinventing himselfto smile despite the difficulties and make his voice heard. He left silently, in the same Roman neighborhood that welcomed her for over sixty years. But his presence will remain alive In each frame, in each joke and in that indelible image of NOnna Trieste, sitting in the kitchensymbol of an Italy that no longer exists, made of irony, contrasts but above all of humanity.
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