by Giovanna Maria Fagnani
Marina Cicogna and Florinda Bolkan, stars of “Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion” and “Put One Evening at Dinner,” met at a party in Paris. A year later, the romance was born, then the breakup, and in the years that followed, only a few words about each other
A long love story in a time when conformism was not kind to homosexual relationships. An intense bond of escape and return. Never hidden, but not even voluntarily displayed. For twenty years, Marina Cicogna, who died today at 89, and Florinda Bolkan, star of “Investigation into a Citizen Above Suspicion” and “Put One Evening at Dinner,” were an enduring couple. Then the separation and in the coming years only a few words about each other. Even if the actress wanted to greet her ex-partner with a note: “We were friends.” We have come a long, culturally important way together. I will always be grateful to her. In addition, the producer later explained in her autobiography: “People have often put labels on me, but my life and my decisions speak for me.” I lived with Florinda for twenty years, I have lived with Benedetta for almost forty years. However, I have never loved flaunting my own sexuality in a sensational way. I think parades and general displays of one’s orientation are something superfluous.”
How they met
Florinda Bolkan, of Brazilian origin, and Marina Cicogna met at a party in Paris at the house of actress Elsa Martinelli and photographer Willy Rizzo. “We were young and the same age: there were terrible ups and downs… She was with a group of Brazilians who had just been with the Kennedys in Palm Beach. She lived with a boy, the owner of the Hachette editorial office. I immediately thought of her as a very beautiful, striking, nice girl, but nothing more,” Cicogna recalled in an interview with Io Donna. It wasn’t love at first sight «At that moment I was quite a dancer with my stories. A year later I invited her to Cortina, then to Saint Tropez and there I started to get to know her better. And when he told me that he was going back to Brazil to his family, I replied: Come with me to Tripoli, I’ll take care of you… We organized an audition, Visconti, who liked it for “The Stranger with Marcello “. Mastroianni, but then nothing: crazy beauty, but too much exoticism. And the same thing happened with “The Night Porter.” The matter faded when it was revealed that the protagonist was Dirk Bogarde: Florinda ate him in the salad, he had a strong physicality.
“He came and went”
On set, the friendship becomes a stronger feeling and the two start dating and then live together. But Florinda’s nature is restless. “She was used to running away cyclically, and I was used to chasing her, and at some point I got bored.” Florinda has affairs, but cannot tolerate the affairs of Marina, who has now met Benedetta, her current partner and Adopted daughter. “This beautiful brunette girl with long, wavy hair who I knew could represent my future.” The love for Benedetta is very different from the love for Florinda that Marina remembers: “Florinda is very Brazilian, free, erratic. With a beauty that is inextricably linked to youth. Ephematic, sensual, she didn’t look like everyone else: it was almost impossible for her to age well. Around the age of 50 he began to drift. It came and went and then again and again. One day she never came back. Bolkan almost never spoke about her. He first said in an interview with Corriere: “The one with Marina was an important story, but it’s not the only one, I’ve had others.” When a relationship ends, it ends, I won’t go into it any further.
November 4, 2023 (modified November 4, 2023 | 4:31 p.m.)
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