Even though she was never pampered as Sofia Loren and Claudia Cardinale, Virna Lisi’s simultaneously malicious and cheerful look was a good guarantee for a successful film career in her native country



The paradox is even greater due to the fact that she played the best role of her career at an older age when Patrice Chereau cast her as Caterine Medici in the historical drama Queen Margot for which she won the Golden Palm in Cannes. On the other hand, in Hollywood she had to climb out of a birthday cake in a bikini (in the comedy How to Murder Your Wife directed by Richard Quine and starring opposite Jack Lemmon). Her best roles are those from the 1980’s in films such as Pasquale Festa Campanile’s La cicala and Pietro Germi’s Signore e signori. After Cristina Comencini cast her as a mother in her film Il piu bel giorno della mia vita, Lisi recycled that same role of a motherly figure in many Italian TV series, which brought her the nickname of the Italian protective mother. (Dragan Rubeša)