Sordi in 'An American to Rome'
“We have had the privilege of being born in Rome, and I have practiced it properly, because Rome is not a city like others . It is a great museum, a hall through which you have to walk on tiptoe”. This is how the actor Alberto Sordi described his hometown.
Rome was home for him and, in particular, it was his great Sienna-colored home, located in the green heart of the city, between the Baths of Caracalla, Parque Egerio and Porta Latina . It was his retirement, when he wasn't filming or traveling the world. “In this house I am happy. And in the morning, when I wake up and look out the window, I see Caracalla and the Roman bell tower with the wall, I feel like I'm right there, in Rome, in the heart of the city , but far from the chaotic pollution of the center ”, he said.
On the occasion of centenary of the actor's birth , his house opens to the public for the first time – until January 31, 2021 – to host the exhibition ' Alberto Sordi: 1920-2020'.
Villa Sordi
Crossing those gates thus means invading their fortress. , because Sordi really enjoyed his loneliness , although he used to be surrounded by his inseparable brothers, Giuseppe, Aurelia and Savina , and a few friends, who stopped coming to the house in 1972, when the comic actor, due to the death of his sister Savina, did not want to receive any visitors, until the day of his death, the February 24, 2003.
Albertone Nazionale (that's what we call him in Italy) he bought this house in just under a few hours in May 1954; he had always caught her attention during his long bike rides and when they proposed to buy it, he did not think twice, disputing it, they say, to the very Vittorio De Sica.
THE PRIVATE 'ALBERTONE'
The exhibition starts with the history of the house – the contract, the plans, the anecdotes – and it goes on the room that Sordi transformed into a theater , in which there is no shortage of dressing rooms for the actors and where a black Bechstein pianoforte stands out among all the elements. Here is the little and young Alberto, born in the heart of the city, in Trastevere , portrayed together with his beloved brothers, his mother a teacher and his father a musician, and making his first steps in the performing arts, in fact, when he was only ten years old, he was already traveling through Italy in a puppet company.
The private 'Albertone': the details of Villa Sordi
Before going upstairs, you go through the gym where is the mechanical bull with which the actor competed with his friends - they say that anna magnani was one of the most assiduous. Here, too, the artist kept the most cherished memories of his long career, such as the visor of An American to Rome (1954) or the boots and the trowel of the vigilante of the watch (1960).
Upstairs welcomes us the living room, with large windows overlooking the hot springs , presided over by a portrait of the great Roman comedian and in which the two paintings by De Chirico (the troubadour Y Hector and Andromache ), which the actor acquired directly from the painter, as well as various personal belongings of Sordi; among them, the photos with Pope Giovanni XXIII and Pope Ratzinger or the innumerable prizes, such as the Nastri d'Argento, the Bears, the David de Donatello or the Honorary Golden Lion that he obtained from the Venice Exhibition in 1995 , where four decades earlier he stood out for his role alongside Vittorio Gassman in the great war (1959) from Mario Monicelli , which earned him the Special Award and a nomination for the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The jewel of the house is, without a doubt, the barbershop : a large room full of curious objects, such as a red vintage telephone and an old beige radio, surrounded by huge mirrors - in front of which Sordi rehearsed - and in which a painting signed by one of the fathers of Neorealism appears, Cesare Zavattini . You will fall into the temptation of taking your photo (or more) memory!
CHARACTER
After this tour of the most intimate 'Albertone', we access the garden, where his car is still parked, a Gray Fiat Punto , and in which there is a bust of Sordi dressed in a toga with the inscription " Emperor of Italian cinema ". Two pavilions have also been installed here that house all kinds of unpublished documentation and relics related to the artist's long career.
Villa Sordi's barbershop
A career in which the Roman comedian portrayed an entire society in his own way, especially that of the economic boom after World War II and the sixties in Italy. Sordi remained as a symbol, that of a conceited young man who crosses the workers' sleeves at I Vitelloni (1953) or that he threatens suicide from the top of the Colosseum if he is not allowed to go to America. I Vitelloni of Fellini, the Widower (1959) by Dino Risi, will continue to be milestones in cinema, together with the character of Otello Celletti from The police (1960) or The mutual doctor (1968).
He knew how to represent the average Italian with his flaws and virtues and embodied the typical and shrewd Roman irony that still lives through his films. Such is so in 2000, for his 80th birthday, the city council of Rome allowed him to serve as mayor for one day.
Besides being an actor, Sordi was Italian director, comedian, screenwriter, composer, singer and voice actor – voiced Oliver Hardy, Robert Mitchum, Anthony Quinn and Marcello Mastroianni for the film Domenica d'Agosto , among others -. So, strolling through the two pavilions installed in the garden is like traveling through the multifaceted trajectory of the most beloved actor of the Romans.
More than 20 stage costumes, original scripts, audio material from interviews and radio programs, images of the Giro d'Italia – of which Sordi was a chronicler-, an endless number of posters – where we see a young Miguel Bose (The Miser) -, items for The Messaggero – of which Sordi was one of the most generous subscribers and the mythical Harley Davidson of An American in Rome (1954) are just some of the jewels that are part of this journey.
Alberto Sordi's piano room
In addition, in this area of the exhibition we discover the 'Albertone' tiofoso de la Roma, in a targa it reads “ In this house also the dog is from Rome ”; animals were another passion of the comic actor, he had 18 dogs, all rest in the garden of the house. And speaking of passions, women deserve special mention.
SORDI AND WOMEN
Along with Marcello Mastroianni he was one of the most famous Latin lovers in Italian cinema, however he never got married. . He preferred to have a good time, between work, good food, friends and women, besides, he already had two female figures who constituted his atypical family: the sisters Aurelia and Savina. He was very adept at eluding the most savvy paparazzi of the time. The Dolce Life.
The secrets of Villa Sordi
“E che so matto? I got un'estranea inside the house?!” (Do you think I'm crazy? How am I going to bring a stranger into the house!) That's how he used to answer, in Roman, the eternal question of why he didn't get married. While he is known as a great official 9-year love story, in the midst of countless flirts - Shirley McLaine was one of the most international-, and it is the one he had with the diva Andrea Pagnani and which ended a few months before Sordi achieved fame with the white sheikh (1952) by Federico Fellini.
One of the secret and platonic loves of the actor was Silvana Mangano , known on the set of the great war and with which he coincided in many more films. This love never materialized because Mangano she was married to producer Dino de Laurentis.
Address: Piazzale Numa Pompilio, Rome See map
Schedule: Until January 31, 2021 from Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday from 10 to 20.
Half price: €12 whole; €8 reduced; €5 children between 6 and 14 years old.