Compared with painting, music, literature and other artistic genres, the history of film is very short, only more than a hundred years, and due to two world wars, this more than one hundred years have to be somewhat discounted.
But short history also has the advantage of short, that is, those legends in the film industry, there are still many still alive, they are like the "living history" of movies.
It is a pity that today, there is one less "living legend".
Her name is Gina Lollobrigida, and in the fifties and sixties of the last century, she became popular around the world and once appeared on the cover of Time magazine.
At the time, she was synonymous with "sexy".
Among her works, the most familiar to domestic audiences may be the 1956 version of "Notre Dame de Paris", in which she played the heroine Esmeralda, which is incomprehensible.
The media at the time mentioned her, often calling her "the most beautiful woman in the world", and when she was most popular, she fought with Sophia Roland and went head-to-head;
Even after retiring, she became restless, ran to become a photographer and sculptor, and even interviewed Castro, and rumors spread that she had an affair with Castro;
At the age of 79, she had a hot head and wanted to marry a man 34 years younger than her, and there were rumors all over the city, and as a result, she canceled the wedding again, saying that the media had messed up her...
It seems that wherever she goes, she will take the horse with her.
Her legendary life, let's review it together:
1.
Laurobregida was born on July 4, 1927, in a small mountain village about 65 kilometers outside Rome, and his family worked as a furniture maker.
She has been interested in art since she was a child, but in her teens, World War II broke out, and this interest could only be put on hold.
After the war, the family moved to Rome, where the family of six was crammed into a room, but her interest in art remained undiminished, and she went to the Roman Academy of Fine Arts to study sculpture and also enrolled in a singing class.
In order to pay for her tuition, she got a job as a model while also working as an extra, and it was this opportunity that made scouts notice her.
The scout gave her the opportunity to audition at Cinecitta Studios, the largest studio in Europe at the time, known as "Hollywood on the Tiber", but Laurobregida had no interest,
The other party only quoted a price of 1000 lira at first, in order not to be disturbed, she simply opened her mouth and quoted an outrageous price of one million lira, unexpectedly, the other party finally agreed.......
In 1947, she participated in the Miss Italy contest, won the third place, and officially began her career as an actress.
As a newcomer, she did not participate in many works, and the only one that can be called "Pagliacci" was filmed in 1948, and it can be seen from the poster that she will already be the heroine.
"Pagliacci" is famous in the opera, but this adaptation did not make much waves.
In 1949, she married Milko Skofic, a Slovenian doctor who later became her agent and helped manage her acting career.
At that time, her husband, who was probably more interested in acting than her, took a set of cover photos of her with a camera, which was seen by Hollywood 6,000 kilometers away.
Hollywood scouts discovered that there was such a future sexy goddess in Europe, so they quickly launched a money offensive to poach her.
The person who dug her is none other than the industry's famous and notorious Howard Hughes.
This person is an American business magnate, pilot, engineer, filmmaker and philanthropist, who simply crosses countless borders, but at the same time, he is also a poisonous insect and suffers from severe obsessive-compulsive disorder.
He acquired RKO Pictures Studios (one of the five largest studios of Hollywood's Golden Age) in 1948 and often had affair with its actresses such as Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth and Ava Gardner.
This man's experience is quite legendary, and Martin Scorsese later made a biopic called "Aviator", which is about him.
2.
Being seen by Howard Hughes is an opportunity and a crisis for Laurobreb Rigida.
Hughes invited her to Hollywood and offered to audition for her. Laurobregida eventually nodded yes, but she hoped her husband would come with her.
Hughes said yes at first, but on the day of departure, the two tickets he promised became one, and she had to go to the United States alone.
When he arrived in the United States, Hughes launched a crazy sugar-coated offensive,
He asked the divorce lawyer to wait at the airport, let her stay in a luxury hotel, assigned her a secretary, a driver, and even the audition scene, the plot is that the character is making a divorce...
Hughes's meaning is self-evident, he courted for three months in a row, showing up at Laurobregida's hotel every day, but she blocked it all.
Later, in an interview with the media, she expressed that she regretted it a little, saying: "I was too naïve at the time, and then I realized that he was a very interesting person. Much more interesting than my husband. ”
After these three months, Hughes' patience ran out, and he forced Laurobre Ligida to sign a contract, similar to a non-compete agreement, making the cost of signing her by other Hollywood studios extremely high, and the contract period was as long as seven years, basically ruining her path in Hollywood.
But Laurobregida just wanted to go home, she signed the agreement, and since then she has focused her career on Europe.
It turned out later that she didn't need Hollywood, it was Hollywood that needed her.
Back in Europe, she quickly rose to fame and won the award.
In 1953, she starred in "Bread, Love and Dreams", which was a box office hit, she was nominated for BAFTA, and later won the Silver Ribbon Award for this film.
In the same year, she starred in "Wayward Wife" and "Beat the Devil", playing opposite Humphrey Bogart, which made her famous all over the world.
Even Bogart was fascinated by her, and even said something that now seemed very offended:
"She made Marilyn Monroe look like Shirley Temple."
(Photo of her and Monroe)
In 1955, Laurobregida starred in "Beautiful but Dangerous", this film is also known as "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World", she also earned this nickname, and since then the media has often called her "the most beautiful woman in the world".
At that time, her career was very open, Italian, French, British film circles were involved, and she also participated in some European and American co-productions,
Later, Howard Hughes' contract expired, and she was even more unburdened, becoming the code name of the sexy goddess on two continents in Europe and the United States.
How hot was she back then?
In 1960, Fellini actually looked for her when he filmed "La Dolce Vita", but she pushed it because the schedule was too full...
That's Fellini...
In 1960, in order to lower taxes and solve her husband's Yugoslav identity problems, the two moved to Toronto, Canada, which Canadian magazines talked about as "the best defense of liberal immigration policy ever."
Her film career is slowing, but she is still in full swing and confident.
In the '60s, she collaborated with Rock Hudson on September Coming and Bed, Different Dreams, which won her a Golden Globe.
Later, Hudson was revealed to be gay, but she said that she had known for a long time, and she told reporters with an attitude of "the charm of the old lady is unstoppable":
"When Locke wasn't in love with me, I knew he must be gay."
In Hollywood that year, Sophia Roland basically rose to prominence at the same time as her, both of them are sexy goddesses, the media will naturally not miss this opportunity, nothing to compare the two.
And Roland's husband at that time was not honest, and he pouted Roland to say something that was easy to cause sparks,
At that time, Roland was also young, just in his early 20s, and really said, the most famous sentence is "I have bigger breasts than Laurobregida"........
In response, Laurobregida shot back: "Sophia can play a farmer, but she can't play a lady." The difference between the two of us is as big as a majestic steed and a goat. ”
After that, the two fought openly and secretly from time to time, but now, all disputes have lost their meaning.
When the news of her death came, Roland immediately expressed his remembrance, saying that he was "deeply saddened".
In the face of time and death, the trifles of the past are no longer worth mentioning ...
3.
After the 70s, Laurobre's career and feelings went downhill. In 1971, Italy finally legalized divorce, and she immediately filed for divorce with her husband, ending the relationship of more than two decades.
In terms of career, she made her last film in 1972, and since then she has not set foot in the film industry, but has turned to photography and sculpture - her old profession.
In 1974, she wrote a personal letter to Castro, somehow persuaded the latter to give an interview, and four days later she set off with "8 cameras, 200 rolls of film, 10 new blue jeans, a sound engineer, a photographer",
She spent 12 days in Havana, and rumors began circulating about her and Castro, but she never responded, saying only that he was "very human, warm and hypnotic."
In any case, the event was at least quite successful in terms of publicity, and she began another career as a photographer.
She has photographed celebrities such as Paul Newman, Salvador Dalí, Henry Kissinger, Audrey Hepburn and published her own portfolio.
In short, although this photography career is not as prominent as film, it is also very strong.
After enough photography, she went to bronze sculpture – a huge bronze sculpture.
She runs a huge sculpture studio in Tuscany and has exhibited her work in Paris, Moscow and Venice.
In addition to art, she also had the idea of entering politics. In 1999, she ran unsuccessfully in the European Parliament elections as Romano Prodi's Democratic candidate.
Last year she even ran in the Italian election at the age of 95... Of course, it didn't work out.
In terms of personal life, although she has many suitors, it seems that no one has really entered her heart.
In 2006, she announced her engagement to Javier Rigau y Rafols, a Spanish guy 34 years younger than her. But because of the crazy publicity of the media, the engagement was quickly canceled.
However, the later experience proved that she was wise to cancel the marriage contract.
Because the man then did something very outrageous: he used another woman to play Laurobre Rigida and continued to complete the "wedding".
Later, it was she who searched for documents on the Internet and found out about it.
She took the man to court, but he said that Laurobregida had previously given him a power of attorney and agreed to marry him.
The judge finally ruled against Laurobregida, but fortunately in 2019 the pope declared the marriage null and void, otherwise her inheritance would have been divided by this person...
For feelings, she said in a 2015 interview with Vanity Fair:
"My experience is that by the time I find the right person, he has left me. People want to be stars, and no one wants to live in your shadow. ”
It's quite a feeling of being cold from a high place.
She doesn't care about money either, she just does what she wants.
In 2014, she auctioned off some of the jewelry she wore and made about five million dollars, all of which she donated to stem cell research.
She decorated her home like an ancient court, and although she was lively all her life, she was essentially like this empty palace, brilliant and lonely.
"I'm a lonely person who focuses on art, I never compromise, stay independent, always alone," she said. The source of my strength is simply my free spirit. ”
In her life, she has experienced war, fame and fortune, glory, troughs, lies, and freedom. Love is always owed.
In the end, dust returns to dust, and I hope that the moment she closes her eyes, she will walk calmly.