Vania Protti Traxler: «I said to my husband: “No ruby, give me a film”»

«MI husband had me promised a ring, but then we went to Cannes Film Festival and we saw Maria Braun’s wedding by Rainer Werner Fassbinder… I was struck: “No ruby: give me this film!”». And so, in 1978, Vania Protti and Manfredi Traxler founded theAcademy Picturesthe distribution company that – with many masterpieces by directors who were little-known at the time – accompanied and nourished demanding viewers until 2011.

From Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders a Tie me up! by Pedro Almodóvar, from My left foot by Jim Sheridan at Trilogy by Krzysztof Kieślowski until Faust by Aleksandr Sokurov (the last in the catalogue). According to Enrico Lucherini, the press agent par excellence, the Traxler couple “invented auteur cinema”.

Vania Protti and Manfredi Traxler, family story

«These films were either not released in Italy or were released in film clubs: our intuition was to bring them to “normal” theaters. When I asked to project Maria Braun at the Rivoli in Rome, just before Christmas, they looked at me: “Have you gone crazy?”. He was supposed to stay for eight days, he stayed for almost two months »he smiles Vania who at 87 years old published We dreamed at the cinema (Edizioni Sabinae, with the collaboration of Francesca Boschiero and Giovanni B. Gifuni). An autobiography in which we discover, among other things, that the link with the Seventh Art is a family story.

«My grandfather and his brother wanted to dedicate themselves to something more modern than their dairy in the province of Mantua, and the new was represented by the invention of the Lumière brothers (who they also frequented in 1904): they projected the first films in the squares on white sheets. Dad continued the business as a merchant and expanded it. As a child I spent the afternoons in front of the big screen and made my school friends “crash”… I have fond memories of childhood. And heavy memories.”

War.
My mother was Jewish and in 1938, due to the racial laws, we started having to hide. Until 1944, when my father – tired of taking us around Italy, through the mountains – decided: “Let’s move to Milan: in the big city no one will notice us”. My two brothers and I were lucky: being blond. A detail that once saved us, we were about to be put against the wall. Every night there was a bombing, every night a run for shelter. In ’45 it ended: we returned to Bologna.

“In college!”

Normality, finally.
They sent me to school with nuns and, at 13, they sent me to boarding school in Florence, in Poggio Imperiale. I messed it up a lot… (laughs)

What had happened?
One evening I escaped out the window to follow my older friends to a dance: there was a beauty contest. I was elected “Miss Smile” and, the next day, my parents saw the photo on the Rest of the Pug. They were mad as hell!

Vania Protti Traxler: «But not the actress!»

At that age, how did you imagine the future?
Definitely not an actress! The dream of almost all girls was to get married and so, at 19 and a half years old, I got married to Ferruccio: our Franco was born when I was 21.

Ferruccio Merk Ricordi, aka Teddy Reno.
At the time it was almost a scandal that the son of great industrialists would start singing, which is why he chose a pseudonym. We separated early (Rita Pavone entered the scene three years later, ed) and we have maintained a wonderful relationship. We also spoke the other day…

You made a film together.
Yes, but for fun. Her name was The great challengewas a musical – partly produced by my father – where I played the daughter of a publisher who gets engaged to a singer… Very original! (laughs)

And after the separation?
I opened a boutique (at the time it was customary) in Riccione. And anyway, I’ve always liked elegant clothes!

I remember the shop: it gave the line on trends.
It was fun, but after about fifteen years I was fed up and when I married Manfredi – he worked at Rai in the foreign relations sector and was as dissatisfied as me – my father suggested: “Why don’t you try cinema too?” .

“Either you undress or you leave”

Don’t run too fast! How did you meet her future husband?
(smiles) I met him a couple of times with mutual friends in Tuscany and, together with them, he came to celebrate a New Year’s Eve at my house. The plan was a trip to Africa, but alas I had fallen ill. Once the guests have left, I tell them: “I’m going to sleep, I’m tired”; “I accompany you”. I change, I get under the sheets; he sits next to him and starts talking: talk, talk, talk… At a certain point I blurt out: “Look at you, dressed in dark, with black shoes among lace and organza (from boarding school I still had a passion for double beds). canopy): either you undress, or you leave.” He stayed.

We Boomers also remember your journey with the Academy: certain films were watershed.
And we bought them before the success exploded (also because, afterwards, they would have had unattainable prices). I am proud to have collected five Oscar awards, seven Golden Lions in Venice, three Palme d’Or in Cannes, three Golden Bears in Berlin and awards in Locarno: we discovered Marco Tullio Giordana with his Cursed, I will love youwho won the Golden Leopard in 1980. We have distributed very few Italians: a bet – won – was Mery forever by Marco Risi.

Fellini’s last film was yours, Interview.
For a small private distribution, without subsidies, having Federico’s film was truly an honor.

Launches that make you proud?
Mephisto by István Szabó with Klaus Maria Brandauer (the Hungarian producers looked at us in disbelief when we asked for the rights!); Lola DarlingSpike Lee’s debut film; The moon’s favorites by Otar Ioseliani; The Garden Mysteries of Compton House by Peter Greenaway and The sky above Berlin: for me it remains Wenders’ best, regardless of what my friend Sergio Corbucci thought of it.

What did he comment?
“Vania, I’m sorry: this time you screwed up!”. Instead she stayed nine months in programming! Of course, the remark ruined my dinner, with the lasagna I had cooked at Wim’s request…

The recipes for success

Ah yes, his famous dinners after the previews. We dreamed at the cinema it has an entire section with recipes.
The only diploma I have is in cooking! (laughs) In my house we ate not well, very well: there was a tradition both on my father’s side (Mantua is a gastronomic capital) and on my mother’s side: one of her uncles had even opened a shop selling Jewish specialties. It was only Tom Ford who gave me a hard time though A Single Manhis directorial debut.

Why?
The publicists had exhausted me with requests. “Tom wants the white tablecloth”, “Tom wants the white flowers”, “Tom wants the white fish”. Finally I asked him if he had liked the fish, which I had put a lot of effort into researching. “For what reason?” she was surprised. “I’m Texan, I eat anything, even five-kilo Florentine steaks!”.

It was 2009: Manfredi had passed away in 2000 and in 2011 the Academy would have closed.
Unfortunately, things started to fall apart after the Lehman Brothers crisis in 2008. But we ended on a high note with the Golden Lion for Faust.

Did being a woman in that world complicate things?
Marina Cicogna, who was also my husband’s cousin, said in an interview: “There have only been two important women: me as a producer, Vania as a distributor”. But I have to be honest: I didn’t have any difficulties, on the contrary, it seemed intimidating. With Academy we introduced a director like Mira Nair with Salaam Bombay!while a veteran like Agnès Varda chose us for Without shelter or law.

“Dancing, what a dream”

Any missed opportunities for which he ate his hands?
Sincerely? No. I bought everything I was interested in. It’s not that I want to put on airs, eh…

But let’s start giving it to ourselves, women are too “minimalist”.
When I want it, I want it, they say in Rome. (laughs)

A curiosity: why so many titles on dance in the catalogue, from Montenegro Tango to Ballroom?
I love dance, and I was gifted. My teacher wanted me to study professionally, but my parents: “No, not a dancer!”. However, if I had to make a wish now, it would undoubtedly be: to dance once again cheek to cheek!

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