Valentina Cortese


Valentina Elena Cortese Rossi di Coenzo, sometimes credited as Valentina Cortesa, was an Italian film and theatre actress. Her screen career spanned over 100 productions across over five decades, from 1941 until 1993. Cortese won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her performance in the film Day for Night. In 2013, she received the French Order of Arts and Letters.
Over the course of her career, Cortese worked with many important Italian and international directors, including Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Franco Zeffirelli, François Truffaut, Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Terry Gilliam. She was also active on stage, particularly in the company of Giorgio Strehler. Critic Morando Morandini described her as "one of the last divas of Italian theatre.... a mix of floral liberty, subdued decadence, belated D'Annunzio-ism and neurotic modern sensibility."
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Early years

Cortese was born on New Year's Day in Milan. Her parents were Olga Cortese and Napoleone Rossi di Coenzo, of noble origins. Cortese's father abandoned her mother shortly before her birth, and she was raised by her mother in the countryside, before being sent to Turin to live with her maternal grandparents in 1930.
After meeting conductor Victor de Sabata in 1940, then married with children and 31 years her senior, she quit high school and followed him to Rome, where she enrolled at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Career

She first appeared on stage before receiving a contract at Scalera Film in 1941 and giving her film debut with a small role in L'orizzonte dipinto.
Cortese's first important film roles were in Roma Città Libera, Les Misérables and The Wandering Jew. 1948 also saw the end of her relationship with de Sabata. Her appearance in the British production The Glass Mountain led to numerous roles in international productions, including Jules Dassin's Thieves' Highway, chosen by her then-partner Dassin over the originally cast Shelley Winters, and Robert Wise's The House on Telegraph Hill. In 1951, she married her co-star on The House on Telegraph Hill Richard Basehart, with whom she returned to Italy. Cortese continued to appear in national and international productions; the most notable of this era include Joseph Mankiewicz's The Barefoot Contessa and Michelangelo Antonioni's Le Amiche. For the latter, she received the Nastro d'Argento for Best Supporting Actress.
In 1960, Cortese and Basehart divorced, and Basehart returned to the US, leaving in her custody their only child, Jackie. In the following years, she worked for directors as diverse as Mario Bava, Bernhard Wicki, Federico Fellini, Robert Aldrich and Joseph Losey. For her performance in François Truffaut's Day for Night she received the BAFTA Award, the National Society of Film Critics Award and the New York Film Critics Circle Award, and was nominated for the Academy Award which ultimately went to Ingrid Bergman. In her acceptance speech, Bergman remarked that she felt Cortese should have won the award.
While her later films were mostly of lesser artistic interest, Cortese was continuously successful on stage, working with Giorgio Strehler, with whom she had a long-lasting relationship, Franco Zeffirelli, Luchino Visconti and Patrice Chéreau. In 1980, she married industrialist Carlo De Angeli. Her last film was Zeffirelli's 1993 Sparrow.
In 2017, Francesco Patierno documented her life in the film Diva!, based on her 2012 autobiography Quanti sono i domani passati.

Death

Cortese died on 10 July 2019, aged 96.

Selected filmography

L'orizzonte dipinto The Actor Who Disappeared The Hero of Venice – AlinaFirst Love – Nerina RediGirl of the Golden West – Madge / JuanitaThe Jester's Supper – LisabettaThe Queen of Navarre – Eleonora d'AustriaSoltanto un bacio – Maria Renda / Luisa RendaOrizzonte di sangue – LidiaFourth Page – Valentina, la sua segretariaHappy Days – Marianna4 ragazze sognano – Enrichetta DorlenceLa carica degli eroi No Turning Back – ValentinaThe Ten Commandments – Chi l'ha visto? – LuisellaRome, Free City – La ragazzaA Yank in Rome – Maria, La maestrinaBullet for Stefano – BarbaraThe Courier of the King – Louise de RenalLes Misérables – Fantine and CosetteThe Wandering Jew – EstherCrossroads of Passion – Maria PilarThe Glass Mountain – AlidaBlack Magic – ZoraidaThieves' Highway – RicaMalaya – LuanaWomen Without Names – Anna Petrovic the JugoslavShadow of the Eagle – Elizabeth, Princess TarakanovaThe Rival of the Empress – Principessa TarakanovaThe House on Telegraph Hill – Victoria KowelskaSecret People – MariaLulu – LulùJealousy – Agrippina The Walk – LisaAngels of Darkness – VallyMarriage – Natalia Stefanovna ChubukovaAvanzi di galera – Moglie di LuprandiThe Barefoot Contessa – Eleanora Torlato-FavriniAdriana Lecouvreur – Adriana LecouvreurLe Amiche – NeneIl conte Aquila – Teresa CasatiFaccia da mascalzone Magic Fire – Mathilde WesendonkThe Rocket from Calabuch – Eloisa, the SchoolmistressDimentica il mio passato Kean: Genius or Scoundrel – Fanny Amore a prima vista Love and Troubles – MarisaSquare of Violence – Erica BernardiBarabbas – JuliaAxel Munthe, The Doctor of San Michele – Eleonora DuseThe Girl Who Knew Too Much – Laura Craven-TorraniThe Visit – Mathilda MillerThe Possessed – IrmaJuliet of the Spirits – ValentinaBlack Sun – MariaThe Legend of Lylah Clare – Countess Bozo BedoniListen, Let's Make Love – Lallo's MotherOh, Grandmother's Dead – OrnellaThe Secret of Santa Vittoria – Gabriella Give Her the Moon – Madeleine de LépineFirst Love – MotherThe Love Mates – EvaThe Boat on the Grass – ChristineThe Iguana with the Tongue of Fire – Mrs. SobieskyChronicle of a Homicide – Luisa SolaBrother Sun, Sister Moon – Pica Di BernardoneThe Assassination of Trotsky – Natalia Sedowa TrotskyDay for Night – SéverineAppassionata – Elisa RutelliTendre Dracula – The Kiss of Death – Elizabeth Blixen