1.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
2.
Kingdom of Italy
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The state was founded as a result of the unification of Italy under the influence of the Kingdom of Sardinia, which can be considered its legal predecessor state. Italy declared war on Austria in alliance with Prussia in 1866, Italian troops entered Rome in 1870, ending more than one thousand years of Papal temporal power. Italy entered into a Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary in 1882, victory in the war gave Italy a permanent seat in the Council of the League of Nations. Fascist Italy is the era of National Fascist Party rule from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as head of government, according to Payne, Fascist regime passed through several relatively distinct phases. The first phase was nominally a continuation of the parliamentary system, then came the second phase, the construction of the Fascist dictatorship proper from 1925 to 1929. The third phase, with activism, was 1929–34. The war itself was the phase with its disasters and defeats. Italy was allied with Nazi Germany in World War II until 1943 and it switched sides to the Allies after ousting Mussolini and shutting down the Fascist party in areas controlled by the Allied invaders. Shortly after the war, civil discontent led to the referendum of 1946 on whether Italy would remain a monarchy or become a republic. Italians decided to abandon the monarchy and form the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of Italy claimed all of the territory which is modern-day Italy. The development of the Kingdoms territory progressed under Italian re-unification until 1870, the state for a long period of time did not include Trieste or Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, which are in Italy today, and only annexed them in 1919. After the Second World War, the borders of present-day Italy were founded, the Kingdom of Italy was theoretically a constitutional monarchy. Executive power belonged to the monarch, as executed through appointed ministers, two chambers of parliament restricted the monarchs power—an appointive Senate and an elective Chamber of Deputies. The kingdoms constitution was the Statuto Albertino, the governing document of the Kingdom of Sardinia. In theory, ministers were responsible to the king. However, in practice, it was impossible for an Italian government to stay in office without the support of Parliament, members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected by plurality voting system elections in uninominal districts. A candidate needed the support of 50% of those voting, and of 25% of all enrolled voters, if not all seats were filled on the first ballot, a runoff was held shortly afterwards for the remaining vacancies. After a brief multinominal experimentation in 1882, proportional representation into large, regional, Socialists became the major party, but they were unable to form a government in a parliament split into three different factions, with Christian Populists and classical liberals
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Gina Lollobrigida
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Luigina Gina Lollobrigida is an Italian actress, photojournalist and sculptress. She was one of the highest profile European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s, as her film career slowed, she established second careers as a photojournalist and sculptress. In the 1970s, she achieved a scoop by gaining access to Fidel Castro for an exclusive interview and she has continued as an active supporter of Italian and Italian American causes, particularly the National Italian American Foundation. In 2008, she received the NIAF Lifetime Achievement Award at the Foundations Anniversary Gala, in 2013, she sold her jewelry collection, and donated the nearly $5 million from the sale to benefit stem cell therapy research. Born Luigina Lollobrigida in Subiaco, Italy, she is one of four daughters of a furniture manufacturer and her sisters are Giuliana, Maria and Fernanda. In her youth, Lollobrigida did some modelling, and from that, at around this time, she began appearing in Italian films in minor roles. In 1945, at age 18, she played a part in the comedy Santarellina by Eduardo Scarpetta at the Teatro della Concordia of Monte Castello di Vibio, in 1947, Lollobrigida entered the Miss Italia pageant and came in third place, giving her national exposure. Her performance in Bread, Love and Dreams led to her receiving a BAFTA nomination, Lollobrigida also appeared in The Wayward Wife and in Woman of Rome. These were three of her most renowned Italian films, but she worked also in the French industry on such films as Fearless Little Soldier, Beauties of the Night and her first widely seen English language film was Beat the Devil, a film which was shot in Italy. In this film, directed by John Huston, she played the wife of Humphrey Bogart and she then took part in the Italian-American production Crossed Swords, co-starring with Errol Flynn. The film was directed by Jean Delannoy, in 1959, she appeared in the French movie The Law, alongside Yves Montand and Marcello Mastroianni, then, she co-starred with Frank Sinatra in Never So Few and with Yul Brynner in Solomon and Sheba. In the romantic comedy Come September, Lollobrigida had a role along with Rock Hudson, Sandra Dee. It was a film for which she won a Golden Globe Award and she appeared, also in 1961, with Ernest Borgnine and Anthony Franciosa in the drama Go Naked in the World. Jean Delannoy then directed her again, this time in Venere Imperiale and she co-starred with Stephen Boyd and she received Nastro dArgento and David di Donatello awards. She co-starred with Sean Connery in the thriller Woman of Straw, with Rock Hudson again in Strange Bedfellows and she starred in Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell with Shelley Winters, Phil Silvers, Peter Lawford and Telly Savalas. For this role, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, Lollobrigida co-starred with Bob Hope in the comedy The Private Navy of Sgt. OFarrell and also accompanied Hope on his visits to troops overseas. By the 1970s, her career had slowed down
4.
Sophia Loren
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Sophia Loren is an Italian film actress. Encouraged to enroll in acting lessons after entering a beauty pageant and she appeared in several bit parts and minor roles in the early part of the decade, until her five-picture contract with Paramount in 1956 launched her international career. Notable film appearances around this time include The Pride and the Passion, Houseboat, after starting her family in the early 1970s, Loren spent less time on her acting career and chose to make only occasional film appearances. In later years, she has appeared in American films such as Grumpier Old Men, in 1995, she received the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievements, one of such awards. In 1999, Loren was acknowledged as one of the top 25 female American Screen Legends in the American Film Institutes survey, AFIs 100 Years.100 Stars. Loren was born Sofia Villani Scicolone in the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome, Italy, the daughter of Romilda Villani and Riccardo Scicolone, Riccardo Scicolone refused to marry Villani, leaving the piano teacher and aspiring actress without support. Lorens parents had another child together, her sister Maria, in 1938, Loren has two younger paternal half-brothers, Giuliano and Giuseppe. Romilda, Sofia, and Maria lived with Lorens grandmother in Pozzuoli, during World War II, the harbour and munitions plant in Pozzuoli was a frequent bombing target of the Allies. During one raid, as Loren ran to the shelter, she was struck by shrapnel, after that, the family moved to Naples, where they were taken in by distant relatives. After the war, Loren and her returned to Pozzuoli. Lorens grandmother Luisa opened a pub in their room, selling homemade cherry liquor. Romilda Villani played the piano, Maria sang, and Loren waited on tables, the place was popular with the American GIs stationed nearby. When she was 14, Sofia entered a beauty pageant, Miss Italia 1950 and, later, she enrolled in acting class and was selected as an uncredited extra in Mervyn LeRoys film Quo Vadis, at the age of 15. In 1951, she appeared in Italian film Era lui. sì. sì. where she played an odalisque. She appeared in bit parts and minor roles in the early part of the decade. She began using her current stage name in La Favorita, the new name being a twist on the name of the Swedish actress Märta Torén and was suggested by Goffredo Lombardo or Carlo Ponti and her first starring role was in Aida, for which she received critical acclaim. After playing the role in Two Nights with Cleopatra, her breakthrough role was in The Gold of Naples
5.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
6.
Denver
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Denver, officially the City and County of Denver, is the capital and most populous municipality of the U. S. state of Colorado. Denver is in the South Platte River Valley on the edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile above sea level, making it the highest major city in the United States. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich, the reference for the Mountain Time Zone. Denver is ranked as a Beta- world city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. With a 2015 estimated population of 682,545, Denver ranks as the 19th-most populous U. S. city, and with a 2. 8% increase in 2015, the city is also the fastest-growing major city in the United States. The 10-county Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 2,814,330 and ranked as the 19th most populous U. S. metropolitan statistical area. The 12-city Denver-Aurora, CO Combined Statistical Area had an estimated 2015 population of 3,418,876, which ranks as the 16th most populous U. S. metropolitan area. Denver is the most populous city of the 18-county Front Range Urban Corridor, Denver is the most populous city within a 500-mile radius and the second-most populous city in the Mountain West after Phoenix, Arizona. In 2016, Denver was named the best place to live in the USA by U. S. News & World Report and this was the first historical settlement in what was later to become the city of Denver. The site faded quickly, however, and by the summer of 1859 it was abandoned in favor of Auraria, Larimer named the townsite Denver City to curry favor with Kansas Territorial Governor James W. Denver. Larimer hoped the name would help make it the county seat of Arapaho County but, unbeknownst to him. The location was accessible to existing trails and was across the South Platte River from the site of seasonal encampments of the Cheyenne, the site of these first towns is now the site of Confluence Park near downtown Denver. Larimer, along with associates in the St. Charles City Land Company, sold parcels in the town to merchants and miners, Denver City was a frontier town, with an economy based on servicing local miners with gambling, saloons, livestock and goods trading. In the early years, land parcels were often traded for grubstakes or gambled away by miners in Auraria, in May 1859, Denver City residents donated 53 lots to the Leavenworth & Pikes Peak Express in order to secure the regions first overland wagon route. Offering daily service for passengers, mail, freight, and gold, in 1863, Western Union furthered Denvers dominance of the region by choosing the city for its regional terminus. The Colorado Territory was created on February 28,1861, Arapahoe County was formed on November 1,1861, Denver City served as the Arapahoe County Seat from 1861 until consolidation in 1902. In 1867, Denver City became the territorial capital, with its newfound importance, Denver City shortened its name to Denver
7.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
8.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
9.
Vittorio Gassman
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Vittorio Gassman, Knight Grand Cross, OMRI, popularly known as Il Mattatore, was an Italian theatre and film actor, as well as director. He was born in Genoa to a German father, Heinrich Gassmann, while still very young he moved to Rome, where he studied at the Accademia Nazionale dArte Drammatica. Gassmans debut was in Milan, in 1942, with Alda Borelli in Niccodemis Nemica, in 1946, he made his film debut in Preludio damore, while only one year later he appeared in five films. In 1948 he played in Riso amaro and it was with Luchino Viscontis company that Gassman achieved his mature successes, together with Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli and Paola Borboni. He played Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams Un tram che si chiama desiderio, as well as in As You Like It and he joined the Teatro Nazionale with Tommaso Salvini, Massimo Girotti, Arnoldo Foà to create a successful Peer Gynt. In 1956 Gassman played the role in a production of Othello. He was so well received by his acting in the series entitled Il Mattatore that Il Mattatore became the nickname that accompanied him for the rest of his life. Gassmans debut in the commedia allitaliana genre was rather accidental, in Mario Monicellis I soliti ignoti, famous movies featuring Gassman include, Il sorpasso, La Grande Guerra, I mostri, LArmata Brancaleone, Profumo di donna and Ceravamo tanto amati. He directed Adelchi, a work by Alessandro Manzoni. Gassman brought this production to half a million spectators, crossing Italy with his Teatro Popolare Itinerante and his productions have included many of the famous authors and playwrights of the 20th century, with repeated returns to the classics of Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky and the Greek tragicians. He also founded a school in Florence, which educated many of the more talented actors of the current generation of Italian thespians. In cinema, he worked both in Italy and abroad. He met and fell in love with American actress Shelley Winters while she was touring Europe with fiancé Farley Granger, when Winters was forced to return to Hollywood to fulfill contractual obligations, he followed her there and married her. With his natural charisma and his fluency in English he scored a number of roles in Hollywood, including Rhapsody with Elizabeth Taylor and The Glass Wall before returning to Italy and the theatre. While rehearsing Hamlet, he began an affair with Anna Maria Ferrero, his 16-year-old Ophelia and he and Winters were forced to work together on Mambo just as their marriage was unraveling, providing fodder for tabloids all over the world. He later voiced Mufasa in the Italian version of The Lion King, Gassman married three actresses, Nora Ricci, Shelley Winters, and Diletta DAndrea, by whom he had a son, Jacopo. In addition, he had an affair with actress Juliette Mayniel and he rendered them with the same professional skill that made him famous while reciting Dantes Divine Comedy. On 29 June 2000, Gassman died of an attack at his home in Rome
10.
Marcello Mastroianni
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Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni, Knight Grand Cross was an Italian film actor. His honours included British Film Academy Awards, Best Actor awards at the Cannes Film Festival, Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, a small village in the Apennines in the province of Frosinone, Lazio, and grew up in Turin and Rome. He was the son of Ida and Ottone Mastroianni, who ran a shop. During World War II, after the division into Axis and Allied Italy, he was interned in a loosely guarded German prison camp, from which he escaped to hide in Venice. Mastroianni made his debut as an uncredited extra in Marionette when he was fourteen. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times, for Divorce Italian Style, A Special Day and Dark Eyes, Mastroianni, Dean Stockwell and Jack Lemmon are the only actors to have been twice awarded the Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. Mastroianni won it in 1970 for The Pizza Triangle and in 1987 for Dark Eyes, Mastroianni starred alongside his daughter, Chiara Mastroianni, in Raúl Ruizs Three Lives and Only One Death in 1996. For this performance he won the Silver Wave Award at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival and his final film, Voyage to the Beginning of the World, was released posthumously. Mastroianni married Flora Carabella on August 12,1950 and they had one daughter together, Barbara, but eventually separated because of his affairs with younger women. Mastroiannis first serious relationship after the separation was with Faye Dunaway, Dunaway wanted to marry and have children, but Mastroianni, a Catholic, refused to divorce Carabella. In 1971, after three years of waiting for Mastroianni to change his mind, Dunaway left him, Mastroianni had a daughter, Chiara Mastroianni, with French actress Catherine Deneuve, who was nearly 20 years his junior and lived with him for four years in the 1970s. During that time, the couple made four movies together, It Only Happens to Others, La cagna, A Slightly Pregnant Man, according to People magazine, Mastroiannis other lovers included actresses Anouk Aimee, Ursula Andress, Claudia Cardinale and Lauren Hutton. Around 1976, he involved with Anna Maria Tatò, an author. They remained together until his death, Mastroianni died of pancreatic cancer on 19 December 1996 at the age of 72. Both of his daughters, as well as Deneuve and Tatò, were at his bedside, the Trevi Fountain in Rome, associated with his role in Fellinis La Dolce Vita, was symbolically turned off and draped in black as a tribute. At the 1997 Venice Film Festival, Chiara, Carabella and Deneuve tried to block the screening of Tatòs four-hour documentary, Marcello Mastroianni, the festival refused and the movie was shown. The three women reportedly tried to do the thing at Cannes. Tatò said Mastroianni had willed her all rights to his image. com
11.
Alberto Sordi
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Alberto Sordi, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian actor. He was also a director and the dubbing voice of Oliver Hardy in the Italian version of the Laurel & Hardy films. Born in Rome to a schoolteacher and a musician, Sordi enrolled in Milans dramatic arts academy but was kicked out because of his thick Roman accent, in the meantime he studied to be an opera singer, a bass. It was his accent and voice that would prove to be his trademark. In a career spanned seven decades, Sordi established himself as an icon of Italian cinema with his representative skills at both comedy and light drama. His movie career began in the late 1930s with bit parts, after the war he began working as a dubber for the Italian versions of Laurel and Hardy shorts, voicing Oliver Hardy. In 1959 he appeared in Monicellis The Great War, considered by many critics, the Hollywood Foreign Press recognized his abilities when he was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical or Comedy for Il diavolo. Sordi acted alongside Britain’s David Niven in the World War II comedy The Best of Enemies and in 1965 he was in another highly regarded comedy, in 1969 he was a member of the jury at the 6th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1984, he directed and co-scripted Tutti dentro, in which he played a judge who has warrants for corruption served on ministers and businessmen. Alberto Sordi was really masterful in two roles, one being the one of the underdog, militating against injustices and prevarications. In 1985, he was a member of the jury at the 35th Berlin International Film Festival, Sordi died shortly before his eighty-third birthday following a heart attack. Sordi was also a big supporter of AS Roma football team, Sordi provided the voice of Oliver Hardy in the Italian dubs of more than forty Laurel and Hardy films from 1939 to 1951. He also appeared as an actor in other Italian-language versions. 1938, Avventura a Vallechiara, directed by John G. by Marcello Marchesi, directed by Mario Mattòli 1944-1945, Un mondo di armonie, by Michele Galdieri 1945-1946, Soffia so. By Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini Soffia so,2, by Pietro Garinei and Sandro Giovannini 1947-1948, E lui dice. In 1999, the city of Rome made him honorary mayor for a day to celebrate his eightieth birthday, at the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival, he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor award for Detenuto in attesa di giudizio. At the 13th Moscow International Film Festival he won a Special Prize for I Know That You Know That I Know and he received honorary citizenship from Kansas City, Missouri, for his references to the city in the 1954 film Un americano a Roma. Alberto Sordi at the Internet Movie Database Geographical coordinates and pictures of his grave Alberto Sordi
12.
Jean Gabin
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Jean Gabin was a French actor and sometime singer. Considered a key figure in French cinema, he starred in classic films including Pépé le Moko, La grande illusion, Le Quai des brumes, La bête humaine, Le jour se lève. Gabin was made a member of the Légion dhonneur in recognition of the important role he played in French cinema, Gabin was born Jean-Alexis Moncorgé in Paris, the son of Madeleine Petit and Ferdinand Moncorgé, a cafe entertainer whose stage name was Gabin. He grew up in the village of Mériel in the Seine-et-Oise département, the son of cabaret entertainers, he attended the Lycée Janson de Sailly. Gabin left school early, and worked as a laborer until the age of 19 when he entered business with a bit part in a Folies Bergères production. He continued performing in a variety of roles before going into the military. He was part of a troupe that toured South America, and his performances started getting noticed, and better stage roles came along that led to parts in two silent films in 1928. Two years later Gabin easily made the transition to talkies, in a 1930 Pathé Frères production titled Chacun sa Chance, playing secondary roles, he made more than a dozen films over the next four years, including films directed by Maurice and Jacques Tourneur. However, he only gained recognition for his performance in Maria Chapdelaine. He was then cast as a hero in a 1936 war drama titled La Bandera. The following year he teamed up with Duvivier again, this time in the highly successful Pépé le Moko and that same year he starred in the Jean Renoir film La Grande Illusion, an anti-war film that ran at a New York City theatre for an unprecedented six months. He was divorced from his wife in 1939. In the late 1930s Gabin was flooded with offers from Hollywood, for a time he turned them all down, after the German occupation of France in 1940, he joined Jean Renoir and Julien Duvivier in the United States. During his time in Hollywood, Gabin began a romance with actress Marlene Dietrich which lasted until 1948. However, his films in America – Moontide and The Impostor, Gabin was a difficult personality, he did serious damage to his Hollywood career while working for RKO Pictures. Scheduled to star in an RKO film, at the last minute he demanded Dietrich be given the co-starring role, after Gabin remained steadfast in his demand, he was fired, and the film project was shelved. Undaunted, he joined General Charles de Gaulles Free French Forces and earned the Médaille militaire, following D-Day, Gabin was part of the military contingent that entered a liberated Paris. He was hired by Marcel Carné in 1946 to star in the film, Les Portes de la Nuit, but his conduct got him fired again
13.
Henri Vidal
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Henri Vidal was a French film actor. Henri Lucien Raymond Vidal was first noticed after he won the Apollo of 1939 contest in Paris and he was spotted by Edith Piaf, and made his film debut alongside her in the movie Montmartre-sur-Seine in 1941. Vidal went on to appear in 36 films between 1941 and 1959, in May 1943 he married the actress Michèle Cordoba, and they divorced in July 1946. In 1950 he married French actress Michèle Morgan, whom he met while filming Alessandro Blasettis 1949 film Fabiola and he died in 1959 of a heart attack. He is buried in Pontgibaud, in the Puy-de-Dôme départment, Henri Vidal at the Internet Movie Database Henri Vidal at AllMovie
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Abel Gance
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Abel Gance was a French film director and producer, writer and actor. A pioneer in the theory and practice of montage, he is best known for three major silent films, Jaccuse, La Roue, and the monumental Napoléon. Born in Paris in 1889, Abel Gance was the son of a prosperous doctor, Abel Flamant. Initially taking his mothers name, he was brought up until the age of eight by his grandparents in the coal mining town of Commentry in central France. He then returned to Paris to rejoin his mother who had by then married Adolphe Gance and he started working as a clerk in a solicitors office, but after a couple of years he turned to acting in the theatre. When he was 18, he was given a contract at the Théâtre Royal du Parc in Brussels, where he developed friendships with the actor Victor Francen. While in Brussels, Gance wrote his first film scenarios, which he sold to Léonce Perret, back in Paris in 1909, he acted in his first film, Perrets Molière. At that stage he regarded the cinema as infantile and stupid and was drawn into film jobs by his poverty, but he nevertheless continued to write scenarios. During this period he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, often fatal at that time, Gance tried to maintain a connection with the theatre and he finished writing a monumental tragedy entitled Victoire de Samothrace, in which he hoped that Sarah Bernhardt would star. Its five-hour length, and Gances refusal to cut it, proved to be a stumbling block, with the outbreak of World War I, Gance was rejected by the army on medical grounds and in 1915 he started writing and directing for a new film company, Film dArt. He soon caused controversy with La Folie du docteur Tube, a fantasy in which he. The producers were outraged and refused to show the film, Gance nevertheless continued working for Film dArt until 1918, making over a dozen commercially successful films. His experiments included tracking shots, extreme close-ups, low-angle shots and his subjects moved steadily away from simple action films towards psychological melodramas, such as Mater dolorosa starring Emmy Lynn as a neglected wife who has an affair with her husbands brother. The film was a commercial success, and it was followed by La Dixième Symphonie. Here Gances mastery of lighting, composition and editing was accompanied by a range of literary and artistic references which some critics found pretentious and he re-enlisted in the Service Cinématographique in order to be able to film some scenes on a real battlefield at the front. The film made an impact and went on to have international distribution. He employed elaborate editing techniques and innovative use of cutting which made the film highly influential among other contemporary directors. The finished film was originally in 32 reels and ran for nine hours
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Vittorio De Sica
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Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement. Indeed, the critical success of Sciuscià and Bicycle Thieves helped establish the permanent Best Foreign Film Oscar. These two films generally are considered part of the canon of classic cinema, Bicycle Thieves was cited by Turner Classic Movies as one of the 15 most influential films in cinema history. De Sicas acting was considered the highlight of the film, born into poverty in Sora, Lazio, he began his career as a theatre actor in the early 1920s and joined Tatiana Pavlovas theatre company in 1923. In 1933 he founded his own company with his wife Giuditta Rissone, the company performed mostly light comedies, but they also staged plays by Beaumarchais and worked with famous directors like Luchino Visconti. De Sica appeared in the British television series The Four Just Men and his passion for gambling was well known. Because of it, he often lost large sums of money, in 1937 Vittorio De Sica married the actress Giuditta Rissone, who gave birth to their daughter, Emi. In 1942, on the set of Un garibaldino al convento, he met Spanish actress Maria Mercader, after divorcing Rissone in France in 1954, he married Mercader in 1959 in Mexico, but this union was not considered valid under Italian law. In 1968 he obtained French citizenship and married Mercader in Paris, meanwhile, he had already had two sons with her, Manuel, in 1949, a musician, and Christian, in 1951, who would follow his fathers path as an actor and director. Although divorced, De Sica never parted from his first family and he led a double family life, with double celebrations on holidays. It is said that, at Christmas and on New Years Eve and his first wife agreed to keep up the facade of a marriage so as not to leave her daughter without a father. Vittorio De Sica died at 73 after a surgery at the Neuilly-sur-Seine hospital in Paris, Vittorio De Sica was given the Interfilm Grand Prix in 1971 by the Berlin International Film Festival. Miracolo a Milano Cannes Film Festival Palme DOr Winner Umberto D
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Buster Keaton
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Joseph Frank Buster Keaton was an American actor, director, producer, writer, and stunt performer. He was best known for his silent films, in which his trademark was physical comedy with a stoic, deadpan expression. His career declined afterward with a loss of his artistic independence when he was hired by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He recovered in the 1940s, remarried, and revived his career to a degree as a comic performer for the rest of his life. Many of Keatons films from the 1920s, such as Sherlock Jr, the General, and The Cameraman, remain highly regarded, with the second of these three widely viewed as his masterpiece. Among its strongest admirers was Orson Welles, who stated that The General was cinemas highest achievement in comedy, Keaton was recognized as the seventh-greatest film director by Entertainment Weekly, and in 1999, the American Film Institute ranked him the 21st greatest male star of classic Hollywood cinema. Keaton was born into a family in Piqua, Kansas. He was named Joseph to continue a tradition on his fathers side and Frank for his maternal grandfather, later, Keaton changed his middle name to Francis. His father was Joseph Hallie Joe Keaton, who owned a traveling show with Harry Houdini called the Mohawk Indian Medicine Company, according to a frequently repeated story, which may be apocryphal, Keaton acquired the nickname Buster at about 18 months of age. Keaton told interviewer Fletcher Markle that Houdini was present one day when the young Keaton took a tumble down a flight of stairs without injury. After the infant sat up and shook off his experience, Houdini remarked, according to Keaton, in those days, the word buster was used to refer to a spill or a fall that had the potential to produce injury. After this, it was Keatons father who began to use the nickname to refer to the youngster, Keaton retold the anecdote over the years, including a 1964 interview with the CBCs Telescope. At the age of three, Keaton began performing with his parents in The Three Keatons and he first appeared on stage in 1899 in Wilmington, Delaware. The act was mainly a comedy sketch, Myra played the saxophone to one side, while Joe and Buster performed on center stage. The young Keaton would goad his father by disobeying him, a suitcase handle was sewn into Keatons clothing to aid with the constant tossing. The act evolved as Keaton learned to take trick falls safely and this knockabout style of comedy led to accusations of child abuse, and occasionally, arrest. However, Buster Keaton was always able to show the authorities that he had no bruises or broken bones. He was eventually billed as The Little Boy Who Cant Be Damaged, decades later, Keaton said that he was never hurt by his father and that the falls and physical comedy were a matter of proper technical execution
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Lira
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Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current currency of Turkey and also the name of the currencies of Lebanon. It is the currency of Italy, Malta, San Marino and the Vatican City, all of which were replaced in 2002 with the euro, and of Israel. The term originates from the value of a Troy pound of high purity silver, the libra was the basis of the monetary system of the Roman Empire. When Europe resumed a monetary system, during the Carolingian Empire, the Roman system was adopted, particularly this system was kept during the Middle Ages and Modern Age in England, France, and Italy. In each of countries the libra was translated into local language, pound in England, livre in France. The Venetian lira was one of the currencies in use in Italy, during the 19th century, Egypt and the Ottoman Empire adopted the lira as their national currency, equivalent to 100 piasters or kuruş. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed in years 1918-1922, many among the successor states kept the lira as their national currency. In some countries, such as Cyprus, which have belonged to both empires, the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire, the lira and pound are used as equivalents. For Turkish lira, the Turkish lira sign is used, otherwise L, sometimes in a double-crossed script form or less often single-crossed, is usually used as the symbol. The Turkish lira was introduced in 1844 during the Ottoman reign, the Turkish Lira is now the currency of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The Lebanese pound is called lira in Arabic, which is the language of Lebanon. The Syrian pound is called lira in Arabic, which is the language of Syria. The Jordanian dinar is widely called a lira, the Bulgarian and Romanian languages refer to the English pound as lira in opposition to Croatian which refers to the Italian currency as lira. Cipolla, Le avventure della lira, Bologna, Il Mulino,1975, stefano Poddi, La lunga storia della lira, stralcio, Fondazioni, n.2 marzo-aprile,2008. Stefano Poddi, La lunga storia della lira, articolo completo, Difesa e Lavoro, overview of Italian lira from the BBC
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Lloyd's of London
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Lloyds of London, generally known simply as Lloyds, is an insurance market located in Londons primary financial district, the City of London. Unlike most of its competitors in the industry, it is not an insurance company and it is a corporate body governed by the Lloyds Act of 1871 and subsequent Acts of Parliament. It is a partially mutualised marketplace within which multiple financial backers, grouped in syndicates, come together to pool and these underwriters, or members, are a collection of both corporations and private individuals, the latter being traditionally known as Names. The insurance business underwritten at Lloyds is predominantly general insurance and reinsurance, the market has its roots in marine insurance and was founded by Edward Lloyd at his coffee house on Tower Street in around 1688. Today, it has a building on Lime Street, opened in 1986. Its motto is Fidentia, Latin for confidence, and it is associated with the Latin phrase uberrima fides. In 2015, there were 84 syndicates that wrote £26.69 billion of premiums on business placed by 242 Lloyds brokers. Insurance lines comprised 68% of the written, mainly property and casualty. Collectively the market reported a profit of £2.12 billion. The market began in Lloyds Coffee House, opened by Edward Lloyd in around 1688 on Tower Street in the historic City of London and this establishment was a popular place for sailors, merchants, and ship-owners, and Lloyd catered to them with reliable shipping news. The coffee house soon became recognised as a place for obtaining marine insurance. The shop was frequented by mariners involved in the slave trade. Lloyds obtained a monopoly on maritime insurance related to the slave trade, just after Christmas 1691, the small club of marine insurance underwriters relocated to Lombard Street, a blue plaque on the site commemorates this. The Royal Exchange was destroyed by fire in 1838, the building was rebuilt by 1844, but many of Lloyds early records were lost. In 1871, the Lloyds Act was passed in Parliament which gave the business a sound legal footing, the Lloyds Act of 1911 set out the Societys objectives, which include the promotion of its members interests and the collection and dissemination of information. On 18 April 1906, an earthquake and resulting fires destroyed more than 80 per cent of the Californian city of San Francisco. This event was to have an influence on building practices, risk modelling. Lloyds losses from the earthquake and fires were substantial, even though at the time the placement of insurance business overseas was viewed with some wariness
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Baron Carlo Mazza
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Baron Carlo Mazza is a 1948 Italian musical comedy film directed by Guido Brignone and starring Nino Taranto, Silvana Pampanini and Enzo Turco. The films art direction was by Virgilio Marchi, a penniless baron desperately tries to reverse his fortune, and eventually attempts to marry a wealthy Mexican woman. Baron Carlo Mazza at the Internet Movie Database
20.
Anthony of Padua (film)
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Anthony of Padua is a 1949 Italian historical drama film directed by Pietro Francisci and starring Aldo Fiorelli, Silvana Pampanini and Carlo Giustini. The film portrays the life of Anthony of Padua, the A to Z of Italian Cinema. Anthony of Padua at the Internet Movie Database
21.
47 morto che parla
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47 morto che parla is a 1950 Italian comedy film directed by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia. The film stars Totò and Silvana Pampanini, the story is set in a small town near Naples early 1900. Baron Antonio Peletti is a stingy and cruel man who thinks only to spend the bare minimum needs for his son and future daughter-in-law, but one day his grandson who want to steal the box full of gold coins Antonio, hide under the bed has a way of revenge. But in order to steal the tape, the needs the complicity of all higher institutions in the country, including the mayor. In fact, the man wants to build a school for the children of the village. So the pharmacist really wants to deceive Antonio with a pill into believing that it gave him to drink a poison accidentally. Only then Antonio would be redeemed from their sins in the past, however, during the operation something is wrong and Antonio realizes the trap of the villagers. The nephew not to lose money steals the cassette and runs away in a balloon with his girlfriend but Antonio joins him and the three hovering in the air. But due to a failure of the starts to descend towards the sea and so must lighten it, Antonio will be forced into tears
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Beauties on Bicycles
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Beauties on Bicycles is a 1951 Italian comedy film directed by Carlo Campogalliani and starring Silvana Pampanini and Delia Scala. It was filmed at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome with sets designed by Alfredo Montori, the film was one of the more popular productions released that year and was a financial success. Two young women travelling towards Milan to try to secure roles in a new comedy show enjoy a series of adventures which involve pretending to be soldiers. Beauties on Bicycles at the Internet Movie Database
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Un giorno in pretura
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Un giorno in pretura is a 1954 Italian comedy film directed by Steno. It was shown as part of a retrospective on Italian comedy at the 67th Venice International Film Festival and it starred Alberto Sordi and Sophia Loren. An Italian court in Rome during the Fifties, all kinds of illegalities are brought to trial in front of Judge Lo Russo, well known for his inflexibility and severity in the administration of justice. Slowly he begins however to sympathize with the accused, tonnara Maurizio Arena as Lorenzo Un giorno in pretura at the Internet Movie Database
