Clara Calamai


Clara Calamai was an Italian actress.

Career

Calamai was born in Prato, Tuscany, on 7 September 1909.
Calamai's first acting role was in the 1938 war film Pietro Micca, directed by Aldo Vergano.
In Alessandro Blasetti's The Jester's Supper, Calamai briefly appeared topless in a scene. The scene is commonly credited with being the first time that an actress had appeared topless in an Italian sound film, although Vittoria Carpi showed a bare breast for a moment in the 1941 film La corona di ferro, which was also directed by Blasetti. Calamai stated in a later interview that the original script did not have the character revealing herself this way and did not want to do the scene, but felt compelled by the director to do it and gave in when she was promised a closed set.
Her most remembered role was in the film Luchino Visconti's Ossessione, in which she played Giovanna, the ill-fated female protagonist.
Calamai was offered the lead role in L'adultera, after Anna Magnani, originally cast in the part, "was visibly five months' pregnant when she arrived on the set." Calamai was awarded the Nastro d'Argento in 1946 for best actress for her performance in the film.
She played a prostitute in Luchino Visconti's Le notti bianche and appeared in Le streghe.
After years of retirement, she returned in 1975 to appear in the horror film Profondo rosso as the eccentric matriarch, Marta.

Personal life

On 19 May 1945 she married explorer, and documentary film maker Count Leonardo Bonzi with whom she had two daughters. The marriage was annulled in November 1959, and she lived with Captain of Aviation Valerio Andreoni.
Calamai died in Rimini on 21 September 1998. Calamai is buried in the Monumental Cemetery of Rimini. In September 2022, a stele dedicated to her was unveiled in the cemetery behind the funerary monument of Federico Fellini.

Partial filmography

  • Pietro Micca - La contessa de Lassere
  • Il destino in tasca
  • They've Kidnapped a Man
  • Ettore Fieramosca - Fulvia
  • I, His Father - Renata
  • The Fornaretto of Venice - Olimpia Zeno
  • L'eredità in corsa - Lilli
  • The Silent Partner - La moglie di Prado
  • Le sorprese del vagone letto - La canzonettista
  • Boccaccio - Giannina, falso Boccaccio
  • Captain Fracasse - Iolanda De Foix
  • Goodbye Youth - Elena
  • Manovre d'amore - Agnese, l'istitutrice
  • Caravaggio - Madonna Giaconella
  • Il re del circo - Bianca
  • I mariti - Tempesta d'amore - Clara Ferri
  • Light in the Darkness - Amelia Gioiosi
  • Thrill - Federica Usticky
  • Pirates of Malaya - Ada
  • The Adventuress from the Floor Above - Biancamaria Rossi
  • The Jester's Supper - Ginevra
  • The Queen of Navarre - Isabella del Portogallo
  • La guardia del corpo - Adriana
  • Le vie del cuore - La baronessa Emilia Carpineti
  • Ossessione - Giovanna Bragana
  • Enrico IV - Matilde Spina / Frida
  • A Little Wife - Isa
  • Farewell Love! - Laura Acquaviva
  • The Materassi Sisters - Peggy
  • La resa di Titì - Paola De Marchi
  • Two Anonymous Letters - Gina
  • The Adulteress - Velca
  • The Tyrant of Padua - Tisbe
  • Il mondo vuole così - Carla
  • Last Love - Maria, la canzonetista
  • When the Angels Sleep - Elena
  • Prelude to Madness - Elena Leonardi
  • Romanticismo - Giuditta Ansperti
  • Sicilian Uprising - Elena Di Caltabellotta
  • The Phantom Musketeer - Marina Venier
  • Carne inquieta - Marchesa di Francavilla
  • White Nights - La prostituta
  • Slave Women of Corinth - Stenele
  • Tom Jones
  • The Witches - Ex-actress
  • Deep Red - Marta
  • The Sinner - Michele's Mother