Woman world

We watch ourselves grow old in mirrors. They bring us closer to death. Orpheus, 1950. Princess Death – Spanish-French actress Maria Casares (21 November 1922 – 22 November 1996)

Spanish-French actress Maria Casares
In the film of Jean Cocteau “Orpheus” Casares played Death, initially appearing in the guise of a mysterious, businesslike stranger in a black radio-fuzzy limousine (fiction for those days!). She is able to enter the depth of the mirror, leading the dead, and is able to return life, and gently, sacrificially love. Maria Casares plays Death, sent to Orpheus in the guise of a mysterious Princess.
According to the symbolist-poetic concept of Cocteau, Death was at the same time the embodiment of higher Love, and Maria Casares finally got the role she deserved. The searing blackness of her hair and clothes, the tragic Spanish temperament, the hypnotic gaze of the light eyes, suddenly replaced by black ones (painted by Cocteau on the eyelids of the actress) – this image is unforgettable.
Casares not only became a visual symbol of the style of this film, but also gave it her divine voice.
“… Maria Casares speaks, screams, her voice trembles, she trembles, falling into a state of trance, which already made the audience tremble … . Tears flow down her cheeks, she is sobbing. Jean Cocteau goes off shaken … “What an actress!” – he whispers.”
The episode refers to 1949 – the poet films the final scene of his “Orpheus” in the ruins of an old officer’s school, destroyed by German bombers.
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Popular in 1950-1960s, Beautiful Italian actress Antonella Lualdi

1950-1960s Beautiful Italian actress Antonella Lualdi
Antonietta De Pasquale, better known as Antonella Lualdi – Italian actress, whose fame in 1950s was no less than Lucia Bose’s or Gina Lollobrigida’s.
Born 6 July 1931 in Beirut, her father was an Italian engineer, and her mother a Greek. She spoke fluently three languages ​​- Arabic, French and Italian. At the beginning of the war, her parents moved to Milan, but before the age of 16 the girl studied in Florence. There, in addition to study at the theater school, the beautiful girl began working as a model, posing for various fashion magazines.
Once, young Antonietta got into the footage of the documentary chronicle (1947). Here, the film director Mario Mattoli saw her and invited to the main role in his musical film “The Young Girl” (1949).
A romantic naive look will be the visiting card of the young actress at the beginning of her rapid career. Particularly, in the films of Luigi Zampa, Mario Landi, Augusto Genina, and Mario Bonnard. And one of the best works of this period will be the role of Vittoria, the daughter of the mayor in Alberto Lattuada’s 1952 film “Overcoat”.
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Muse of Antonioni, Italian film actress Monica Vitti (born 3 November 1931)

Muse of Antonioni, Italian film actress Monica Vitti
For the first time, we saw this face when Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Eclipse” was released on the screens. In general, the usual – an attractive modern woman. And extraordinary – with this elusive glance, in which suddenly flashes an alarm, with a slowed, unwillingly, a smile, with a slow change of expressions, strangely not related to what is happening around. Vittoria, absorbed in herself, hiding this behind her detached immovability of features, such was Monica Vitti’s then.
Several years passed – and here is another Vitti: a violently gesticulating child of the south, the fierce Sicilian of Asunca. A familiar face was difficult to recognize, not because an old long braid replaced the careless bang: she lived quite according to other laws. Two Monica Vitti? But it has already become almost banal to talk about the “twinning” of many movie actors.
But the case of Monica Vitti is not entirely customary, even quite unusual. The fact is that to play – in the usual sense of this concept – she has become just in entertainment-comedy films. Here, her ability to reincarnate, strong acting skills, the range of roles – up to the buffoonery and the grotesque. But in the films of Antonioni, who brought her worldwide fame, Witti “did not play,” or played quite differently. They talked about her: a model, a type, a paint on Antonioni’s palette, let bright and sonorous, but passively express someone else’s intention, not an actress, but a plastic symbol of the theme of “non-communicability” and “alienation.”
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1960s Beautiful Czech actress Kveta Fialova (1 September 1929 – 26 September 2017)

1960s Beautiful Czech actress Kveta Fialova
Stars arise in different ways. Some flare up unexpectedly and dazzlingly, like “supernovae”, and then they can never outshine the first appearance on the screen. But there are others – those who begin in silence and uncertainty. They seem to be waiting for their time, that precious moment when the actor’s soul and the world around come first into contact. If this happens, then the actor, who has never been known to anyone, becomes firmly and habitually necessary for everyone. This is how the actor star Kveta Fialova, the most popular actress of Czechoslovak cinema, ascended to the cinematic horizon.
Fialova started in the province. She was in love with the theater since she was a schoolgirl. After graduating from school, she tried to get into the theater, and succedeed. Kveta got the smallest roles and very quickly realized that one love is not enough. She needed skill. For a young debutante it was a courageous decision: to leave the theater for a while and go to study for an actress.
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Born Berit Elisabeth Andersson 11 November 1935, 1960s Most loved Swedish actress Bibi Andersson

1960s Most loved Swedish actress Bibi Andersson
The name of Bibi Andersson – inherently associated with a number of other major actors in the Swedish cinema – Ingrid Tulin, Harriet Andersson, Max von Sydow, and Gunara Bjernstrand. However, Bibi Andersson in this constellation of “equal values” is somehow especially loved by the Swedish public. It’s no accident that the directory of the cinematographic names of Sweden wrote about her: “… perhaps the best actress of her generation”. There is, apparently, something in her appearance and in the peculiarity of the talent, which makes compatriots treat her with that “home” tenderness. And no accident, that people call her simply “Bibi” and understand who behind two letters “BA” is.
Interviewers of the actress assure the audience that Bibi, like many other actors, sensitively perceives every nuance in the reviews, and reasonably enough determines the value of each review. She joyfully and gratefully responds to real warmth and excitement. According to them, “Bibi is simply too smart to become complacent.”
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German dancer and actress Camilla Martha Horn (25 April 1903 – 14 August 1996)

German dancer and actress Camilla Martha Horn
Born April 25, 1903, in Frankfurt am Main, Camilla Martha Horn is a famous German dancer and theater and film actress. Icon of beauty, she was especially popular in 1930-1940s, playing in Hollywood, and European cinema. The daughter of a railway employee, trained in sewing, she undertook a variety of jobs to pay for acting lessons from Lucie Höflich and dance art from Rudolph von Laban. For some time she worked as an extrasist in the theater and cinema. And in 1925 German film director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau invited her to the role of Gretchen in his adaptation of Faust. Thanks to the success of this film, Camilla Horn received a contract at United Artists in Hollywood. There, her partners on the set were Ernst Lubich and John Barrymore, but she had to play all the same roles of naive girls. In 1929, Camilla Horn returned to Germany, and starred in diverse roles in Britain and France.
After the war, Camilla Horn, who spoke English, first worked as an interpreter, then returned to the cinema and theater. Camilla Horn’s last work fell on 1988. In 1985, Camilla Horn released her memoir “In Love with Love.”

Camilla Horn was married four times. She died at Gilching, where she had lived during the last year of her life, buried at the cemetery in Hershing Am Ammersee.

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Photo from magazine “Actors of foreign cinema”, 1974. Beautiful German actress Jutta Hoffmann (born March 3, 1941 in Halle der Saale)

Beautiful German actress Jutta Hoffmann
She was lucky: until now she had played only interesting, multifaceted roles. But to be more precise: she herself helped her happiness a little, gently, but persistently rejecting the uninteresting (or what she herself thought was so).
Jutta Hoffmann began her acting career in 1960, but became famous after her role in the film “Julia is alive” (Julia lebt) in 1963. Indeed, her gentle girl’s face with big eyes remained in memory. According to critics, she was an extremely sensitive creature – either a child, or a woman, surprisingly receptive, ready to respond. As the newspaper “Neues Deutschland” defined the nature of her talent, “This is something very beautiful and sublime”.
The same year, television offered her the first major role in “Wandering, searching”. It was the story of the hopeless love of the ironing handler Lene Nimpch and lieutenant of the cuirassier regiment Boto von Rinecker. This her role met a lot of criticism. And the opinion of the audience was somewhat ambiguous. First, the public had to get used to her peculiar, severe charm, as the canons of beauty of this thin woman were far from the generally accepted on the television screen.
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