The green area adjacent to the Casino building will soon be named after the actress, who already won the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 1997 and is a cinema icon

A tribute to an icon of the seventh art, in a place that is a symbol of Italian and world cinema: the Venice Lido. There are just over two weeks to go until the inauguration of the 78th Exhibition and recently the City Council of Venice decided to name the green area adjacent to the Casino building, between Piazzetta Nicolò Spada and Via delle Quattro Fontane, after the legendary Alida Valli. Already a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 1997, her name will give even more value to one of the most significant places of the Exhibition and of Venice. The proposal, formulated by the Councilor for Toponymy, Paola Mar, accepted a request expressed by the President of the Provincial Committee of Venice of the National Association of Venezia Giulia and Dalmatia, Alessandro Cuk, in agreement with the Cinit-Cineforum Italiano and had received the full support of the President of the City Council of Venice, Ermelinda Damiano, of the Councilor for Mobility, Renato Boraso and of the Councilor for Tourism, Simone Venturini.

One of the greatest interpreters of the 900th century

“Naming such a significant place in Venice after the Italian actress and model Alida Valli is a great honor for the entire City – comments Councilor Mar –; this green area a stone's throw from the place where every year international cinema is honored will from today bear the name of one of the icons of this art. That Alida Valli who in 1997 was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement during the Venice International Film Festival and who would have turned 100 this year. A tribute to an artist who represents, with her long career lasting from 1936 to 2002, one of the greatest interpreters of the twentieth century both in cinema and theater and, also, television”. This year, among other things, marks the centenary of Alida Valli, pseudonym of Alida Maria Altenburger von Marckenstein und Frauenberg, who was born in Pola on May 31, 1921. In 2020, on the occasion of the International Film Festival, the documentary film dedicated to her by Mimmo Verdesca was presented.

An enviable career

Alida left Pola at the age of 9 to follow her family, as her father (a teacher, a nobleman of Tyrolean origins who had married Silvia Obrekar of Istrian origins) had been transferred to a school in Como, but Pola remained in her heart. She made her debut on the big screen at a very young age, playing leading roles right from the start and soon becoming the symbolic actress of Italian cinema during the fascist period, acting in “Piccolo mondo antico” (1941) by Mario Soldati, which was a huge success. In 1943 she achieved the same success singing the song “Ma l'amore no”, the soundtrack of the film “Stasera niente di nuovo”, which became the most successful Italian song and most broadcast by EIAR during the last two darkest years of the war. In 1944 she moved to Hollywood where she was also directed by Alfred Hitchcock and acted alongside Gregory Peck, Frank Sinatra and Orson Welles. Back in Italy, Luchino Visconti directed her in “Senso”, the maestro’s masterpiece. She died in Rome on April 22, 2006.

Ilaria Rocchi – 10/08/2021
Source: The Voice of the People