Virna lisi michel serrault biography
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“My husband was not very happy about my career, Franco is a jealous man — thank God! After we married he tried to take me away from all this movie business.”
— Virna Lisi
Virna Lisa Pieralisi was born on November 8, 1936 in Ancona, on the Italian Adriatic coast, where her father had a marble exporting business.
When the family moved to Rome in the early 1950s, Virna was doing well at school and there were plans for her to go to business college.
However, in 1953, a friend of the family — the singer Giacomo Rondinella — persuaded the producer of a film he was making to give her a test, and she got a small part. The film, E Napoli Canta (And Naples Sings, 1953) began Virna’s career, who appeared (with minor roles) in more than a dozen movies over the next two years.
She then had her first leading role, in a film by one of the emerging generation of Italian directors of the time, Francesco Maselli: LaDonna del Giorno (The Doll That Took the Town, 1957
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Synopsis
In this romantic story, a couple (Michel Serrault and Virna Lisi) who have been married for over forty years are forced to separate, one to each of their two children's families, when they can no longer pay the rent on their longtime apartment. Absence, in this case, refreshes their memory of the love they have shared, and they take to meeting one another furtively in hotel rooms for sex and affection. One summer, as each of their daughters families takes them on separate vacations, they have had enough, and elope, finding contentment as lighthouse keepers off the coast of Sicily.
DirectorDirector
Co-DirectorCo-Director
ProducersProducers
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Original WriterOriginal Writer
EditorEditor
CinematographyCinematography
Assistant DirectorsAsst. Directors
Camera OperatorsCamera Operators
Additional PhotographyAdd. Photography
Production DesignProduction Design
Set DecorationSet Decoration
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Costume DesignCostume Desig
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Virna Lisi: Actress who established her name in Italy then worked with Frank Sinatra, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis
The beautiful Italian actress Virna Lisi had a prolific career, including a stay in Hollywood in the mid-1960s when she was leading lady to such stars as Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis and Frank Sinatra. Her best Hollywood role was that of the sensuous mate of Jack Lemmon in the frothy comedy How To Murder Your Wife (1965) in which her entrance, emerging from a giant cake during a stag party dressed only in a bikini, is an acclaimed moment of the period (and a popular item on YouTube).
She was unhappy, though, at her image, and wanted to escape constant comparisons to Marilyn Monroe, turning down the title role in Roger Vadim’s Barbarella (which went to Jane Fonda) and terminating a Hollywood contract, allegedly paying a hefty sum to be released. She went on to prove herself a fine actress in the Italian and French cinema, winning seven David di Donnatella awards, and she tr