Isabella Rossellini may have been born cinema royalty, but she never wanted to be an actress growing up. In fact, it was because of who her parents are — her mom is three-time Oscar-winning actress Ingrid Bergman, her father is master filmmaker Roberto Rossellini — that she did not want to pursue a career in movies. "That's why I didn't want to be an actress, because I thought they would compare me to my mother."
"I was right, too," she says. "They did that, and they killed me!"
Rossellini made her film debut in 1976's A Matter of Time, appearing alongside her mother as a nun, Sister Pia. Her first proper acting role followed in 1979's Il prato, directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. "I didn't want to be an actress, but I didn't know how to say no to them," she recalls of the Taviani brothers, who were close family friends. "My mama said, 'You're so talented. You've got to take the opportunity to work with them — to work with talent.' I have to say, Mama was right."
Rossellini's career now spans nearly 50 years, with memorable turns in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1987), Robert Zemeckis' Death Becomes Her (1992), and Peter Weir's Fearless (1993). This year, she co-starred opposite Adam Sandler in Spaceman and narrated Julio Torres' Problemista. Her newest film is La chimera, a romantic drama from Italian filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher.
After all these years, the actress says she's actually having more fun now. "When you start, you're nervous and you judge yourself. When you get older, things get better because you are much more kind to yourself," Rossellini muses. "You're also resigned. This is the life I've had. Good or bad, this is what I did."
Here, Rossellini shares with A.frame five films that have stirred her soul and transported her from the Italian countryside to the Golden Age of Hollywood, to Barbie Land, and more.
Written and Directed by: Paolo Taviani and Vittorio Taviani
Paolo died recently, so I thought of him a lot and I watched his films. They were great filmmakers, and they won the Cannes Film Festival the year my father was the president with a film called Padre Padrone — My Father, My Master. It's a wonderful film about a shepherd that wants to learn how to read and write, and his family thinks it's ridiculous. "Just be a shepherd. Don't waste your time with things that don't belong to our culture." The film is about the quest for knowledge, and I thought the subject matter was so interesting because most films are about love or relationships. The quest for knowledge is not something that is generally celebrated.
My father died of a heart attack five days after they won the Cannes Film Festival, and I became quite close to the Tavianis because they came and stayed with us to mourn. Then I made my very first film with them. I didn't want to be an actress, but I didn't know how to say no to them. My mama said, "You're so talented. You've got to take the opportunity to work with them, to work with talent." I have to say Mama was right, although the film was not successful and I got very bad reviews. But the three months that I spent with the Tavianis making their film were wonderful. I had a very good time, and I learned a lot.
Directed by: Marco Bellocchio | Written by: Marco Bellocchio and Anna Laura Braghetti
I recently saw another Italian film, by an Italian director in his 80s. His name is Marco Bellocchio, and he did a film about Aldo Moro. Aldo Moro was an Italian prime minister and the head of the Christian Democratic Party, which was the leading party in Italy. He was kidnapped in '78 and executed by the Red Brigade. In Italy, we had an extreme left-wing movement called the Red Brigade that started to do guerrilla warfare against the government. Moro was kidnapped and shot two months later, and then thrown in the street. I think it traumatized us as much as Martin Luther King's death or President Kennedy's death.
This film reconstructs very carefully all the events but with one different ending, that he survives. Because the government decided not to negotiate with the Red Brigade, which was probably the right thing to do, but I felt the regret of the entire nation — this guilt that all Italians have about Aldo Moro. It is a beautiful film. He really captured something that is present in our Italian conscience, and it moved me so much.
Directed by: Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen | Written by: Betty Comden and Adolph Green
Singin' in the Rain captures a break in the cinema industry, a movement from silent movies to talkies, which was a tragedy. A lot of people lost their jobs. Charlie Chaplin, the biggest silent movie star, did not believe in talkies. He continued to make silent films until '36 or '38. That passage between silent and talkies was very dramatic, but that's a film that presents that moment in history where cinema was really suffering with all of the verve and humor and fun and spirit. There's so much energy.
Directed by: Greta Gerwig | Written by: Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
I have to say Barbie. I loved Greta's films before, but Barbie was at a different level. It's that the voice of humor, and of feminist humor — which sometimes feminist and humor don't go together. You don't think of feminists as being funny. But she brought the humor and the camaraderie of women talking, and [showed] what women do when we get together. Men would say, "They always have girls' lunch. What do they do?" Well, that's what we do, and she captures that. She captured that feminist movement by taking Barbie, the symbol of non-feminism, and making a feminist film.
The film is marvelous, but the film is marvelous for the intelligent sense of humor. And so feminist and yet so funny. I was most impressed with Barbie. Talking to my friends, they say, "Oh, no, I'm not going to see a film about Barbie." I said, "You're wrong. It's going to be like Singin' in the Rain." I think that Barbie is as important as Singin' in the Rain and will remain as a cultural icon of that moment.
Directed by: Guy Maddin | Written by: Guy Maddin and George Toles
It's less about the names of films and really more the author, and Guy Maddin is an incredibly original filmmaker. I did with him a film called The Saddest Music in the World, but I made a lot of short films with him. And I think his style is so great. You feel like you're watching a silent film, but actually, there are words. People are talking. And you feel like you're watching a black-and-white film, but often there is color. It is so nostalgic. It's like you're looking at some mysterious film that has been found in an archive, yet it's a contemporary film. His voice is very original.
He did a film now with Cate Blanchett that's coming out, and I have to say, good for her that she's so experimental as to work with Guy. I don't know Cate Blanchett, but she saw in him what I saw in him: A completely original voice.
