Graziano MARRAFFA celebrates the centennial of the film icon Marcello Mastroianni 

I was working with Federico Fellini in Cinecittà (Rome) and during a break I went to the bar of the legendary city of cinema and there was Marcello Mastroianni who was talking to some film producers. 

I introduced myself.

 I was a friend of his wife the actress Flora Carabella and his close friend Federico Fellini. 

We talked about Hollywood and Rudolph Valentino, a relative of a dear friend of my mother. 

Mastroianni was often compared to Valentino, having an extremely attractive Mediterranean beauty. 

Tall, perfect physique, very regular face, calm, kind, natural, strong. 

He dressed in a classic way, but often with a touch of “casual”. 

A huge success of Mastroianni was the musical “Bye Rudy”, about Rudolph Valentino. 

Mastroianni is one of the most popular iconic movie stars in the world. 

His way of acting is never “passionate” or overwhelming, but filters impulses and emotions through a mask that appears perfectly natural, but since it is a mask, it gives the impression of being able to change from one minute to the next and therefore produces mystery.

 An iconic image of Mastroianni is the one with Anita Ekberg in the enormous Trevi Fountain in Rome in the legendary film by Federico Fellini: “La Dolce Vita”. 

Mastroianni garnering many international honors including two BAFTA Awards, two Best Actor awards at the Venice and Cannes film festivals, two Golden Globes, and three Academy Award nominations. 

Last September, one of the most eminent Italian film critics Graziano MARRAFFA, on the occasion of Mastroianni 100, curated an exhibition of rare film posters of the icon Mastroianni, illustrating his figure and giving precious information on the birth of these films in relation to Mastroianni. 

The writing of a film is linked to various types of factors, but the artistic relationship between the author, the director, the star or stars protagonists is fundamental. 

MARRAFFA is president of the Historical Archive of Italian Cinema which has a very important collection of vintage films and unpublished material made by world-famous directors and we hope that in the near future exhibitions of vintage films can be held in synergy with other important archives such as the Pacific Film Archive in California. 

“Marcello Mastroianni, one hundred years after his birth” is the title of the MARRAFFA event which opened, last September, in Marina of Ragusa, Sicily, the XXVIII Costaiblea Film Festival, artistic direction by Vito Zagarrio, with an introduction by Marraffa and Vincenzo Cascone, in the presence of the Mayor of Ragusa Giuseppe Cassì, while, in a continuous cycle, the film “Marcello Mastroianni” by Angelo Piccione was screened, made up of scenes from the main movies starring Mastroianni.