PLOT

After having won a contest of Greta Garbo look-alikes, the young Romilda Villani meets Riccardo Scicolone with whom she falls in love. Two daughters are barn from the relationship: Sofia and Maria. Although recognized as legitimate by their father and bearing his surname, the little girls suffer very much in childhood for being the children of a couple not married ‘according to the rules’. When war breaks out, Riccardo Scicolone leaves Romilda and his daughters without any means of support. Romilda Villani must make enormous sacrifices for herself and her children. At the end of the war she manages by playing the piano in a trattoria set up impromptu by her relatives for ‘the Americans’. From Naples, Romilda moves to Rome where she and Sofia begin to frequent the movie scene and gain work as extras in a number of films made during that period. One of these is LeRoy’s Quo vadis? Sofia gets small parts in other films and also acts in picture novels, thanks to her exceptional photogenic qualities. She meets Carlo Ponti by chance in a trattoria; Ponti is a producer associated with De Laurentiis who recognises her talent, but several years pass before the young actress finds a good role. This happens in Africa under the Seas (Africa sotto i mari). Fame comes not only because of Carlo Ponti, but above all because of a meeting with director and actor Vittorio De Sica, who is able to give maximum prominence to the actress’s talents. During the shooting of the film The Pride and the Passion (Orgoglio e passione) Sophia meets Cary Grant, who proposes to her, but the actress later marries Carlo Ponti. (Enrico Lancia)
Story and screenplay: Johanna Crawford, Basilio Franchina and Sophia Loren from the book ‘Sophia: Living and Loving: Her own Story’ by Aaron E. Hotchner