In life and in death. Free and proud. Marina Cicogna Mozzoni, the countess of Italian cinema, the woman who for almost ninety years crossed a world that disappears with her forever, yesterday at 12 years old closed her suffering eyes in the arms of Benedetta, the companion she imagined forty years ago when she left Florinda Bolkan and whom he adopted “to give her a better future”. Marina Cicogna, daughter of Count Cesare Cicogna Mozzoni and Countess Annamaria Volpi of Misurata, was born on May 29, 1934 in Rome at the Palazzo Volpi, a few steps from the Quirinale. A childhood in boarding school in Switzerland, a golden youth in the Rome of the Dolce Vita, interrupted by the year of the classical Matura in Venice, where her mother, who had separated from her father at an early age, had called her back because she did not want to study there In the capital she spent her time in Cinecittà. “The cinema was the true love at first sight of my life.” I’ve always had it in my DNA,” he wrote in his autobiography Still Hope, published May 2 with Marsilio. Two years before he was born, his grandfather invented the film festival to revitalize the “somewhat outdated” hotels on the Lido. And last year she was invited to the Biennale by Roberto Cicutto, her great friend, to celebrate the 90th anniversary of a festival that she loved very much and that she had to give up this year due to the illness that now confined her. nailed with lion’s paws to his mother Annamaria’s wooden bed, which had come to Rome from Venice, in the house on Via di Porta Pinciana that he shared with Benedetta and his beloved dogs Minnie and Gipsy. According to her own will, there will be no funeral, but she will be cremated, with the wish that her ashes arrive in that Venice that reminds her so much of her beloved mother.
Benedetta, do you remember the first time you met?
“Yes, we met at the theater on Viale Giulio Cesare in Rome. I visited Florinda, who was with Uncle Vanya. Marina impressed me immediately. He was a very charming, tough, but at the same time irresistible person. We exchanged a look that stayed with me. I was the one who courted her, she fascinated me and I wanted her.”
However, her story initially remained secret.
“Yes, secret and very difficult. I had a partner, but I realized that she was the one I was interested in.
What was Marina like in life?
“A very difficult person, very closed. We didn’t talk much at home: she read a lot and spoke little, but we had a lot of things in common, like movies, we liked watching movies together in bed; He loved animals very much, he did a lot for them, but he was a very hard and difficult person. She faced the disease with great courage and never complained. Here: He was a very dry person, no frills.
Did she die the way she wanted?
“He had wanted to die for some time, but it wasn’t possible. The last two months have been the most difficult. She started to feel sick and wanted to end it because it had become very difficult: her wish was to die in her bed at home with the dogs and she managed to do that thanks to the doctors who took care of us and who were fantastic were. She died peacefully and spontaneously.
She has always been a free woman. Even in friendships.
“She had this freedom to have friends in all areas. She was not interested in politics at all, she looked at the person, not the political group. Which is a rarity in Italy, where everyone looks at you askance if you spend time with someone outside your circle of friends. She was friends with Matteo Salvini and Matteo Garrone and that’s why she wanted both Matteos for her birthday. And she enjoyed that.
You have lived a life full of travel and social life. How did you experience it?
«I have always liked traveling. Worldliness was a tragedy for me! She, on the other hand, was very curious and was attracted to famous people. We went on wonderful trips together. Perhaps the most beautiful time was when we first visited Burma, a country without tourism, and then India. With all his knowledge, he gave me the opportunity to do non-tourist trips.”
Your relationship with Venice?
“A little hate, a little love. The mother she adored, but because of everything that happened with her brother’s death, it was difficult for her to live with. We had houses there, she liked it very much, but at the same time she didn’t want to live there, she preferred Rome, although she loved Venice. There was something, a kind of sadness, that blocked her.
Do you regret not directing the exhibition?
“Absolutely not. He cared a lot about it and perhaps would have liked to have been more involved to help. She was definitely disappointed because her documentary wasn’t shown in Venice. And so was I: I think it was perfect for the festival .Most likely they didn’t because his grandfather’s entire role was there, which is still an open question in Venice.
What were his last words?
“I asked her: Do you still love me? I love you so much”.
And you?
“He said yes.”