She has made more than seventy films including thrillers,
sexy comedies, many decamerotic, horror, fantasy, science fiction, action and
westerns; a professional in the genre cinema. The career of Malisa Longo amazes
us for her ditility of acting, beyond the undeniable of her photogenic
features.
LF Magazine
By Antonello Altmura
February 1, 2019
Tall, slender, lithe, high cheekbones, big blue eyes and
restless, long honey-colored hair, sweet, refined but the air she is wearing
and transmitting is always that of a restless and wandering girl of the '70s.
There are few women in the cinema of the '70s and' 80s who can boast an
incredible physical form like hers, perhaps a miracle of his all-Venetian DNA.
A Raquel Welch all'italiana, if we could define it. She has shot more than
seventy films including thrillers, sexy comedies, many decamerotic, horror,
fantasy, science fiction, westerns and many action films; a professional in the
genre of cinema. The career of Malisa Longo amazes for the ditility of acting,
beyond her undeniable photogenic features. Wife, revolutionary girl, guardian
of the SS, appetizing bourgeois, the girl next door, mafia woman, even a woman
of the future in countless science fiction movies. Her big blue eyes really
marked the Italian cinema, seductive eyes, at times, but also full of healthy
determination. Carlo Giuffrè, Ben Gazzara, Helmut Berger, Lando Buzzanca, Lino
Banfi, Christopher Mitchum, Arthur Kennedy, Bruce Lee, are just some of his
countless partners who she shared scenes with.
The enthusiasm emerges in the film accounts of the
actress, very kind and affable, which today reveals a great desire to live and
create, together with a charm that has remained intact. She left the cinema
herself, she points out, at the beginning of the 1990s; today she is a painter
and writer in an increasingly chaotic Rome but still mysteriously suggestive.
Even Fellini wanted it in the variegated female population of the film "La
città delle donne", in a cameo where she exhibited her photogenic and the statuary
look that the master loved.
Where was the
Malisa Longo actress born?
"In Venice I have always frequented painters and
artists. Then, with my sister, we hitchhiked and traveled around the world
(laughs). I won a Miss Cinema contest. I was a flashy girl and at the beginning
I became a Cubist at the Piper in Milan, where I was a guest of the band
"Equipe 84". Then I came to Rome and started in the cinema with small
parts. Tiny things, remember "Eat it" with Paolo Villaggio at the
beginning .... he was a bear ... then "Una ragazza piuttosto complicata"
by Damiani with Spaak and Bolkan, but it was really at the very beginning.
"
Terence Young
chose her for "Le guerriere dal seno nudo", a cult film that has been
greatly re-evaluated. What do you remember about it?
"I remember a set equipped with few people. Terence
had chosen me after an audition. I remember in Sardinia, in Liscia di Vacca,
the training on horseback, fighting, javelin, English, then acting lessons, for
four weeks, and then going to Spain to shoot the film. "
Lucio Fulci has
directed you in one of his cult film, "Una sull'altra", a story like
Hitchcock, remember Marisa Mell?
"Of course, I did other things with her; there was a
good working friendship. She was a simple girl with this wonderful movie face.
She did not gloat, she was like that, she spoke very truthfully, she used herself
at the actor level. She was a simple woman at the end. I then met her again in
two other films: "Taxi love" and "Amori, letti e tradimenti".
"
With Barbara
Bouchet you filmed "Un tipo con la faccia strana ti cerca per ucciderti",
what do you remember about this colleague?
"Well, we did not bond at the time. I rediscovered
her as a friend today and we see each other. When I was acting, I did my job
but I never lost too much in personal relationships on the set, just to not
give rise to misunderstandings; the world of cinema is a particular world.
Today there can be no rivalry I have to say that Barbara is a beautiful person.
"
"Cristiana
Studentessa degli scandali" by Bergonzelli, a strong film as a rebel girl,
can we ask about it?
"The director Bergonzelli, with whom I worked also
later in two other films, was looking for an actress to play the role of a
rebellious and proud girl. An absolute protagonist. A good test for an actress.
The screenplay was a beautiful cross-section of the '68, and of those years of
the costume revolution. We were going to Mondragone. Maybe I was a bit like
that girl in sixty-eight. A good movie I have to say. At that time I met
Antonioni, who wanted me to star in one of his films, which he did not do. He
also came to the assembly of "Cristiana" to see how I acted. And I
really liked him! Sin. I had a black wig, in the film there was also Rossano, a
singer in vogue at the time, which I remember who was in decline, but still very
vain. "
Another beautiful
film is "Il Trapianto" by the great Steno, with Rascel and Giuffrè,
how do you remember them?
"Oh great ... the film was fun and well written,
Rascel was really funny and then Giuffre was a great actor who put you at ease,
a great Neapolitan gentleman."
"Afyon Oppio" a film about a shop in Turkey
where you work with Ben Gazzara; what was the relationship with this myth?
"I had a small role, but in a strong film. Ben
Gazzara was wonderful and was a friend of Terence Young, I often saw him at the
Olgiata where Terence Young invited him; or at the restaurant. Once at
Terence's "Piccolo Mondo", as a tribute to Ben, and we were friends,
he even sent Roberto Murolo, who was a myth to him. I remember beautiful things
about Ben, a great man who speaks very good Italian. "
With Lando Buzzanca
you did "Il domestico", how did you get along with this actor who is
still very popular today?
"Lando is simply delicious, I still see him. A great
artist downgraded for years for problems with views. He worked a lot because
he's a big guy, but he did not deserve twenty years of mud, because of his art,
I say, it was an injustice. Today, perhaps, they have understood that at the
cinema, for someone who laughs, make the dramatic fresh water ... .. But today
... thanks to him."
Stepping back, you
become famous and sought after all over the world for working with Bruce Lee in
"L’urlo di Chen che terrorizza anche l’Occidente." They have
accredited you in the opening credits as the Italian Beauty for coproduction
reasons. What kind of guy was Bruce Lee? Was he kind to you?
"Yes very gallant and a real man; You know I did not
expect that this Chinese, who had however a beautiful body, had such a
worldwide resonance over the years, I wonder if he had not died so young if
this legend would have even started. He then had a philosophy of his own, he
was a strict, a healthy man, and his son's death seemed strange to me, I must
say. I have my hypotheses ... "
You shot a film
scandal "Adolescence perversa" with Femi Benussi, a Slavic sex
symbol, actress disappeared into thin air, but what we know lives in Istria do
you remember it?
"Femi Benussi was a particular person, she looked
like a film clerk, she did not chat at all with her colleagues and after the
shooting just disappeared. I met her on the street, years after the film, she
was with a friend of mine, but she had already retired, the Director Josè
Benazeraf, was an author who then went into porn but in France it was very well
seen at the time. And I must say that I too was very much appreciated in France.
In addition to the film with Benazeraf, I made more films in France. Two of
these were very successful, but in Italy they did very little, because they
came out quietly, without publicity. In France at the time, after the set, in
the evening we actors, we met with the director and we saw the shots of the day
before. So, between a cup of Champagne, and an appetizer, we exchanged ideas,
even talking about mistakes. With us this never happened, they were afraid that
the actors would say something contrary to the ideas of the director. The voice
then, in France, absolutely made you use yours, even if you were a foreigner,
in Italy instead, most of the time they wanted me to be dubbed. Castellitto,
was already famous, before being famous in Italy, just in France. Raf Vallone was an item. I remember receptions in Paris
from Salvador Dali with his extravagant court around. Unforgettable moments. If
you have a strong artistic background you are really well considered in France.
"
You collaborated a
lot with Tinto Brass, in at least 4 films and he is a great friend of yours, in
particular on "Saloon Kitty" what do you remember?
"A big family all together in the hotel. Helmut
Berger is, as a person, a little evanescent, but as an actor he was a great,
just right for the part. Then I remember Jost Jocobs, the costume designer of
Brass, an absolute genius, creator of cosmetics and wigs, he was a great
professional. I remember Tinto's wife as a very nice person. But be careful ...
with Tinto you create a family on the set but also an absolute penalty, he as a
director demands a lot. "
Then a mythical
film in which you play the beautiful blonde wife of Banfi who must contend with
the charm of Cassini, blackberry, in "La dottoressa ci sta col colonnello",
you were very beautiful in that film, almost to make the Cassini disappear. How
did you find Banfi and the Cassini?
"Mah Cassini is the type of actress perpetually
concerned only with her beauty and there we had no relationship, Banfi is an
exquisite person with whom it was a pleasure to work. Silvio Laurenzi (the
costume designer of the NDR divas) made me pretty, between lace, gloves I was
seductive ... "
With your athletic
physicality you participated in the fantasy "Gunan il guerriero" by
Franco Prosperi, and "Thor the conqueror" by Tonino Ricci, where you
play a slave. What do you remember of these films?
"Very little of those sets ... very little, I
remember my partners in the first, Pietro Torrisi, and in the second, Bruno
Minniti, both with great physicality and great athletic performances."
With Alfonso
Brescia you made a lot of movies, especially science fiction, a woman of the
threatening but seductive future. There were so many, why?
"In the science fiction films there have been
replacements. There were only three movies and then they became five. With
Brescia, however, I have always found myself comfortable even in the craziest
roles; I made 8 films with him, he made me the rider in "Supermen,
Superdonne Superbotte", the doctor in "L’adolescente", the
mother in "White Fang", the sexy maid in "Amori, letti e
tradimenti" and even the Neapolitan wife of Mario Merola in "Il
mammasantissima" ... .. I worked a lot with him really, even before sci-fi
movies."
"Frati
Rossi" a film about the seven, in my opinion to be seen, a film enigmatic,
complex, hypnotic, but what is left
of your participation with the character of the housekeeper Rebecca Hitchcock?
"I remember the animals that were spinning, the
insects in that ancient village of Count Giovannelli ... I enjoy these strict
and rigorous roles. I'm pretty sweet, good-natured, I've never felt I was a
beautiful and erotic actress. I would also like to remind you that between the
films and the theater, I was working on TV shows, I sang, and I even did the
soubrette in a magazine called "Bentornata Madame Magazine". Thanks
to my performance, my photos and posters, have been included in the official
book that tells the story of the "Folie Bergère". A great
satisfaction."
Why did you stop
working in the cinema, you are still beautiful?
"I stopped because I no longer wanted to do the
casting, it was a tiring process because they were all burned by the crisis. I
dedicated myself to writing and poetry and journalism. As a writer I wrote two
books of poetry, a political essay, and two novels, one with Mondadori. They
can also be found on the Internet in the Ebook version. As a painter, however,
I have participated in numerous exhibitions, and I have also won several prizes.
Then, twice a year, I exhibit in via Margutta with the Association of 100
Painters. So I never stop ... But at the cinema ... I think about it again ..
Who knows ... should the right occasion happen .. Why not? "
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