On October 9 of this year, Italian actress Otavia Piccolo celebrated her 72nd birthday.
In 1978, as one of the first Western films to be introduced into the Chinese mainland after the Cultural Revolution, Alain Delon's "Zorro" brought unprecedented viewing enjoyment to tens of millions of Chinese audiences, and in this "hero saves beauty" swordsman film, Piccolo played the beautiful, kind, dare to love and dare to hate Otonthea.
Born in Bolzano, Piccolo is the standard Italian northern beauty, blonde and blue-eyed, slim in stature, and the representatives of the southern beauty, Sophia Roland, Monica Bellucci, etc. are two different types.
As a child, Piccolo and she played Helen Keller
However, as a child, Piccolo was an ugly duckling, but she loved acting, and at the age of 10, she took to the stage to play the deaf, dumb and blind Helen Keller in the play "The Creator", which was a great success.
He was featured on the cover of TV Guide magazine for starring in "White Nights"
She then participated in the filming of the TV series "White Nights", based on Dostoevsky's famous book, and was regarded as a rising star by the Italian show business.
Played Caterina in the movie "Leopard" (third from right)
In 1963, she was selected by the famous director Lucino Visconti to play Caterina, the youngest daughter of Prince Salina, in the film Leopard. In addition to inviting Hollywood actor Bert Lancaster to play Prince Salina, Visconti's love general Alain Delon also played the prince's nephew Donne in the film.
Directing Visconti speaks for Alain Delon and Claudia Cardinal
"I was only 14 years old, and it was my first film to perform," Piccolo recalls. "Alain Deron was 14 years older than me and was an idol I admired, when he was already very famous in Italy. In this film, he mainly plays Claudia Cardinal, and I only have a share of him. ”
Nevertheless, in the first scene of the film, when Don, who has decided to join Garibal's rebel army, comes to the prince's house to resign, he hastily kisses Caterina on the forehead.
Piccolo returns to the location to reminisce about filming Leopard
"On location, I shared a room with Lucila Moraki, and she was envious of me for that," Piccolo said. "She plays my sister in the film, cothea, who has a crush on Donne."
Piccolo was a star of good fortune, and in 1971, she won the film queen laurel at the Cannes Film Festival with "My Youth", which won her the opportunity to go to France to shoot, and her first French film was actually with Alain Deron.
The Widow Kuder is based on a novel by Belgian detective writer Georges Simmonon, which was praised by Mr. Qian Zhongshu. In the film, a 16-year-old single mother, Felicity, has a relationship with jean, a fugitive played by Alain Delon. When Alain Delon received the play, he offered to find an actress who was actually older to play Felice, so Piccolo, 22, got the opportunity.
"I was amazed that Mr. DeLonge remembered me, and this time we had a real kiss scene, and for me it was a wonderful experience," Piccolo recalled. "However, outside of filming, we didn't have much interaction. The heroine of the play is Simon Signelle, who is sad when her husband, Yves Mondang, is in Hollywood with Marilyn Monroe, and DeRon spends most of her time comforting her. ”
In 1975, at the age of 40, Alain Deron decided to make a movie he wanted to make the most, as a gift to himself, which was "Zorro". In addition to his own roles as don Diego the swordsman and the false governor, he also specially invited British actor Stanley Baker to play his opponent in the film, Colonel Horta.
Since it was a Spanish film and was filmed in Spain, the director initially proposed a Spanish actress to play Ortonia, but Alain Delon extended an invitation to Piccolo.
The break between the filming of Zorro
"It was my first time playing a female lead in an action movie, and there was no real emotional scene between me and Delon," Piccolo recalls. "The director was worried that talking about love would affect the rhythm of the film, but despite this, I designed an action to express gratitude to him."
So, when Don Diego says the classic line to Ortonia, "You make me think this life of struggle makes more sense," Piccolo secretly kisses Delong, which becomes a classic still for the film.
After Zorro, Piccolo never worked with Alain Delon. Before that, she had married the Italian journalist Claudio Rossoni and soon gave birth to a son. The Italian media reported heavily on this.
Welcome to Venice
Piccolo later starred in many films such as Mado, Convent of Parma, and Quiet Village, and she also played an important role in this year's Venice Film Festival's film Welcome to Venice.
She is also a voice actress, voiced Princess Leah in the Italian-language Star Wars series.