Alida Valli

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Alida Valli (31 May, 1921 – 22 April, 2006), sometimes simply credited as Valli, was an Italian actress.

Biography

Alida Valli was born in Pola, Istria, Italy [during its short reign] (now called Pula, Croatia), of Austrian and Italian extraction on her father's side, Slovenian and Istrian on her mother's side, and she was christened Alida Maria Laura von Altenburger, Baroness of Marckenstein and Freuenberg.

At 15 years old she went to Rome, where she attended a School for Movie Actors and Directors. Beautiful, elegant and talented (with a sensual and melancholic glance), Alida Valli started her movie career in 1936, in I due sergenti. After many roles in a large number of comedies, she could proved her dramatic talent in Piccolo mondo antico (1941), directed by Mario Soldati. During the War Years she starred in many movies, like Stasera niente di nuovo (1942) and Noi Vivi - Addio Kira! (1943), and became a movie star.

Alida Valli owed her career in English language films to David Selznick, who signed her to a contract, thinking that he had found a second Ingrid Bergman. In Hollywood she played in many great movies: she was the murder suspect Maddalena Paradine in Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case (1947), and the mysterious Czech refugee living in the Russian quarter of post-war Vienna in Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949). But her foreign experience wasn't a great success.

In the early 1950s she came back to Europe, and starred in many french and italian movies. In 1954 she had a great success in the melodramatic Senso, directed by Luchino Visconti. In that movie, set in mid-1800s Venice during the Risorgimento, she was a Venetian countess torn between nationalistic feelings and an adulterous love for an officer (played by Farley Granger) of the occupying Austrian forces. Her performance was vivid and passionate.

In 1959, she appeared in Georges Franju's horror masterpiece Les Yeux sans visage (Eyes Without a Face).

Since the 1960s she worked in several pictures with great directors, like Pier Paolo Pasolini (Edipo re, 1967), Bernardo Bertolucci (La strategia del ragno, 1972; Novecento, 1976) and Dario Argento (Suspiria, 1977). Her last movie appearance was in Semana Santa (2002), with Mira Sorvino. She also appeared on the stage in Italy.

She died on 22 April, 2006 in Rome, slightly over a month short of her 85th birthday. She was survived by her two sons by Oscar de Mejo, Carlo and Larry (and five grandchildren?).

External links

[link] Obituary in The Daily Telegraph (London), April 24, 2006
[link] Obituary in The Guardian (London), April 24, 2006
[link] Istria on the Internet, Prominent Istrians - Life and works of Istrian-born actress Alida Valli
[link] Alternative Film Guide - Mini bio Part I
[link] Alternative Film Guide - Mini bio Part II
[link] Alternative Film Guide - Mini bio Part III
[link] Alternative Film Guide - Mini bio Part IV

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