La belle des belles

There's quite a familiar premise supporting this colourful costume drama, and it's proof that Gina Lollobrigida can turn out an operatic aria with some considerable skill, too. Indeed, it's her own dulcets delivering Verdi's beautiful "Vissi d'arte" that starts this drama off. Her character, "Lina" is a music hall cantante at the turn of the twentieth century who has a brief encounter with the visiting Russian prince "Sergei" (Vittorio Gassman). The two fall hook, line, and sinker but he must leave to rejoin his regiment. Meantime, she is adopted by musical maestro "Doria" (Robert Alda) who takes her under his wing and to Paris where she is swiftly the talk of the town. A brief but rather controversial reunion with her princely beau could put the kibosh on their dreams and so she turns her affections to her co-star "Silvani" (Gino Sinimberghi) but when he falls victim to an on-stage mishap, it's her mentor who hopes to capitalise on her confused predicament as her success goes from strength to strength. With an imperial command performance in St. Petersburg looming, it looks like she and "Sergei" might be thrown together again, but will that be a good thing or disastrous? Gassman is adequate here as the dashingly uniformed prince, and the others do fine in support - but this is really a vehicle for a star who glides effortlessly through this story delivering plenty of grand scale set-pieces as well as a lively duel with her feisty rival "Manolita" (Tamara Lees). The production designers, costumiers and orchestrations are as impressive as anything Hollywood was producing in the mid 1950s, and although it's structurally a little too episodic, it's an enjoyable historical romance that I quite enjoyed.

This film's Italian title is "The Most Beautiful Woman In The World", and with that 10 inch waist of hers, Gina Lollobrigida is easily the prima of the world's prime donne. If you want to mix bellezza with your opera, you can't go wrong here.

Unfair to be very critic about this venerable film. A portrait of Lina Cavalieri, seductive Gina Lollobrigida and charming Vittorio Gassman. Tosma- my favorit opera- , steps to succes and romance in large doses and enough for a nice film about beauty, art and self made woman.

Difficult to write than I like it, I have not reproches about it, seeing it as expression of period sensibility.

Lina Cavalieri (née Natalina Cavalieri) was a famous belle epoque Italian opera singer who was known as the world's most beautiful woman because of her incomparable beauty and her extreme hourglass figure. Cavalieri's portrait has been also hugely popularised in many forms by artist Piero Fornasetti and writer Gabriele D'Annunzio dedicated her a copy of his book IlmPiacere. Extremely underrated and unknown by most part of the audience -probably because it is an Italian movie and not from the USA -this film tells Lina's more or less acurate biography but, far from being a simply biopic, it excels in so many aspects that the movie should deserve a worldwide success. However, it is a hidden gem with lots of interesting points: First of all, miss Lollobrigida cast is a total success. She does a remakable job here: not only plays her role in a very convincing way but also sings her opera parts beautifully (she was trained to be an opera singer when she was very young but had to quit because her family lack of money). In fact, she had refused to play the main role in Italian movie Aida (1953) based on Giuseppe Verdi's opera because she was required to play the role only, not doing the singing. And so the role went to Sofia Loren. The sword duel with Gina in a D'Artagnan style costume -based in the true duel between Lina and a a theatre actress in Rome- is well done and fun to watch and reminds of Gina's previous role in Fanfan La Tulipe with Gérard Philipe. Her ultra small cinched waist is comparable to real Cavalieri's one, that made audiences gasp when she appeared on the stage. Miss Lollobrigida's leading man in the film is great Italian actor Vittorio Gassman, who has not much to do with his role but match her nicely. One of film's highlights are indescriptable and breathtakingly beautiful Nino Novarese's gowns. Miss Lollobrigida looks gorgeous in them. This Italian designer had studied architectural theatral design and had worked in la Scala de Milan previous to work as a fashion designer in many Hollywood movies and winning two academy awards for Cleopatra (1963) and Cromwell (1970). Also, he was nominated by Prince of foxes (1949) and he was recognized internationally for his highly detailed and historically correct fashion designs. In fact, his work in Cleopatra, where he designed most military uniforms and men wardrobe, is clearly different from Cleopatra's character one, that suffered from an excessively much more "modern" attire (by Irene Sharaff and Renié). Also remarkable is the cast of italian tenor Gino Sinimberghi to play the role of tenor Silvani. He appeared in several films playing opera singers and he is especially remembered for his singer and acting ability in italian operas. Cast also include tenor Mario Del Monaco and Emilio Schuberth (the tailor of the stars, as this italian fashion designer was called). Robert Alda plays the villain, Ann Vernon plays Lina's friend Carmela. Directed by Robert Z. Leonard with excellent Eastmancolor photography by Mario Bava filming stunning palaces and gardens, this movie brings us all the fastuosity and grandeur of classic cinema at its best. As a curiosity, in the Folies Plastique scene, as appear in the playbill, Lina is supposed to play three theatre tableaux: The Birth of Venus, Cleopatra, beauty of the ancient world and Lina Cavalieri, beauty of the modern world. But sadly Cleopatra's scene does never appear in the movie although it does in the trailer. Maybe it was cut due to film's length?

Lollobrigida is a feast for the eye,but the screenplay leaves something to be desired.The movie is in turn:

-a biography of a prima donna at the dawn of the twentieth century.Or to be precise a biographical novel.A long and winding road where Lina learns that the way to the top might go through men's beds.

-a musical.

-a comedy:when she pays a visit to her sick mother at the hospital,she sees a priest come out of her bedroom;Gina fights a duel (you read well) with a rival.

-a romantic melodrama :Lina /Gina has a love affair with a nephew of czar Nicolas II who appears in the flesh with wife Alexandra.

-a whodunit !During a performance of "la Tosca" a murder is committed,and for Lina,the handsome nephew(see above) ,played by Vittorio Gassman,is a suspect.

You've got five movies for the price of one.And anyway Lollobrigida is so many women..