60 Fun Facts About Marcello Mastroianni

Which director's La Dolce Vita and 8½ made Mastroianni an international star?

He played a disillusioned tabloid columnist in the first and a creatively blocked film director in the second.

With which actress did Mastroianni form a famous screen partnership across eleven films?

They co-starred from Too Bad She's Bad in 1954 to Robert Altman's Prêt-à-Porter in 1994.

How many films did Mastroianni make in his career, from 1939 to 1996?

He debuted as an uncredited extra in Marionette at 14 but only pursued acting seriously in the 1950s.

In which small Lazio village was Mastroianni born in 1924?

His parents both came from nearby Arpino, and he grew up in Turin and Rome; his uncle Umberto was a sculptor.

What business did Mastroianni's father Ottone run?

His brother Ruggero became a film editor who cut City of Women and Ginger and Fred.

What happened to Mastroianni during World War II?

The camp was loosely guarded, and he slipped away after Italy split into Axis and Allied zones.

Which 1958 caper comedy about a bungled pawn-shop burglary was Mastroianni's breakthrough?

Mario Monicelli's I soliti ignoti also starred Vittorio Gassman and was Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

What is the name of Mastroianni's tabloid journalist in La Dolce Vita?

Over seven days and nights he searches Rome's decadent high society for love and happiness.

In which Roman landmark does Mastroianni wade with Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita?

Fellini claimed Ekberg stood in the cold water for hours while Mastroianni wore a wetsuit under his clothes.

Which everyday word comes from a photographer character in La Dolce Vita?

Walter Santesso played the intrusive news photographer Paparazzo.

Which top prize did La Dolce Vita win at Cannes in 1960?

It also took the Oscar for costumes and was a worldwide hit despite censorship in some regions.

What is the name of the film director Mastroianni plays in 8½?

Blocked on a science-fiction epic, he is surrounded by the women of his life, played by Cardinale, Aimée and Sandra Milo.

Which Oscar did 8½ win?

It also won for black-and-white costume design and ranked 10th in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll.

Mastroianni was the first actor Oscar-nominated for a performance in what?

He was nominated three times for Best Actor and never won.

For which three films was Mastroianni nominated for the Best Actor Oscar?

The nominations came in 1963, 1978 and 1988.

Which two other actors have also won Best Actor at Cannes twice?

Mastroianni won in 1970 for The Pizza Triangle and in 1987 for Dark Eyes.

For which 1970 film opposite Monica Vitti did Mastroianni win his first Cannes prize?

He starred opposite Monica Vitti in the comedy also known as Jealousy, Italian Style.

What scheme does Mastroianni's Sicilian baron hatch in Divorce Italian Style?

Divorce was illegal in Italy, and honour killings drew light sentences; the film won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Who directed Divorce Italian Style?

Mastroianni won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA for playing Ferdinando Cefalù.

A Special Day is set in Rome on the day of which 1938 event?

Loren's housewife and Mastroianni's persecuted neighbour stay home while the city parades.

Who directed A Special Day?

Carlo Ponti produced it and it won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film.

Dark Eyes (1987) was inspired by stories by which Russian writer?

The Lady with the Dog was the chief source; director Nikita Mikhalkov dubbed Mastroianni's voice for the Russian release.

Who directed Dark Eyes?

The Italian-Soviet co-production won Mastroianni his second Cannes prize and third Oscar nomination.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, with Loren and Mastroianni, is what kind of film?

De Sica's trio of couples won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film; Loren was coached for its striptease by a Crazy Horse choreographer.

Marriage Italian Style was adapted from which Eduardo De Filippo play?

Mastroianni plays Domenico, tricked into marriage by Loren's Filumena feigning a deathbed.

In which city was Antonioni's La Notte, starring Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau, filmed?

It follows a novelist and his alienated wife through one day and night and won the Golden Bear at Berlin.

Visconti's White Nights (1957), with Mastroianni, adapts a story by which author?

It won the Silver Lion at Venice; Maria Schell and Jean Marais co-starred.

In a 1986 Fellini film, Mastroianni and Giulietta Masina play impersonators of which duo?

Ginger Rogers sued over the title in the US and lost.

What is the name of Mastroianni's character in Fellini's City of Women?

He voyages through male and female spaces in a dreamlike confrontation with his attitudes to women.

In which 1965 science-fiction film does Mastroianni hunt and get hunted by Ursula Andress?

Elio Petri's film adapts Robert Sheckley's story Seventh Victim; Andress famously fires a gun from her bra.

In Everybody's Fine (1990), how many adult children does Mastroianni's Sicilian visit?

Each child is named after an opera character and each scrambles to hide their failings.

Where was De Sica's Sunflower (1970), with Loren searching for Mastroianni, largely shot?

Scenes were filmed near Moscow and Poltava; the sunflower fields supposedly hold one flower per fallen Italian soldier.

Which Robert Altman film shot at Paris Fashion Week reunited Mastroianni and Loren in 1994?

It was their eleventh and last film together.

In which city is According to Pereira (1995), Mastroianni's late award-winner, set?

His journalist discovers the dark side of Salazar's dictatorship in Antonio Tabucchi's story.

Which Greek director cast Mastroianni as a beekeeper in a 1986 art film?

The Beekeeper was the first of his films to use an already famous actor.

Which American actress did Mastroianni call 'the woman I loved the most'?

They met on A Place for Lovers in 1968; she left in 1970 when he refused to divorce his wife.

With which French actress did Mastroianni have his daughter Chiara in 1972?

They lived together for four years and made four films, including A Slightly Pregnant Man.

Whom did Mastroianni marry in 1950 and never divorce?

They separated informally in 1964 but as a Catholic he refused divorce; their daughter Barbara was born in 1951.

In which 1996 film did Mastroianni act alongside his daughter Chiara?

Raúl Ruiz directed; his final film, Voyage to the Beginning of the World, came out after his death.

How did Rome pay tribute when Mastroianni died in December 1996?

He died of pancreatic cancer in Paris aged 72 and was buried in Rome's Verano Cemetery.

In which Paris church was Mastroianni's funeral held?

A second ceremony followed at Rome's city hall before burial in the family vault.

Whose four-hour documentary about him did his family try to block at Venice in 1997?

His partner from 1976 said he had willed her all rights to his image; the festival screened it anyway.

What was the highest Italian honour Mastroianni received, in 1994?

He had been made a Commander in 1967 and Grand Officer in 1987.

For which 1989 film did Mastroianni win the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at Venice?

He received an honorary Golden Lion the following year and a special Nastro d'Argento after his death.

Which British director won Best Director at Cannes for Leo the Last (1970)?

It was based on George Tabori's play The Prince and co-starred Billie Whitelaw.

Which stereotype do Mastroianni's roles define, per the title of a 2004 study of him?

Jacqueline Reich's book was called Beyond the Latin Lover: Marcello Mastroianni, Masculinity, and Italian Cinema.

Which of these was Mastroianni's attitude to Hollywood?

He remained a quintessentially Italian actor for most of his career.

With which star did Mastroianni appear in Massacre in Rome (1973)?

His other Anglophone co-stars included Rita Tushingham, Jacqueline Bisset and Jack Lemmon.

Which relative, a film editor, appeared with Mastroianni in the 1971 spoof Scipio the African?

Ruggero also edited City of Women and Ginger and Fred.

In which 1939 film did the 14-year-old Mastroianni make his screen debut as an uncredited extra?

He made only intermittent minor appearances until his first big role in Atto d'accusa in 1951.

Which famous sculptor was Marcello's uncle?

Both of the actor's parents came from the nearby town of Arpino; he grew up in Turin and Rome.

Which real photojournalist inspired the Paparazzo character in La Dolce Vita?

Co-writer Ennio Flaiano said he took the name from a character in George Gissing's 1901 travel book By the Ionian Sea.

In which country was La Dolce Vita banned until the death of its dictator in 1975?

The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano condemned it as a parody of the Second Coming; Portugal waited ten years to allow it.

Which set designer built over eighty La Dolce Vita locations at Cinecittà, including the Via Veneto?

He even recreated the dome of Saint Peter's with its staircase; the aristocrats' party was shot in the real Bassano di Sutri palace with real nobles as extras.

How much did La Dolce Vita earn in rentals in the US and Canada on its original release?

That made it the highest-grossing foreign-language film at the US box office; a 1966 re-release added $1.5 million more.

Which American distributor bought the US rights to 8½ sight unseen and released it in June 1963?

Acclaim was near-unanimous, though Pauline Kael called it a 'structural disaster' and John Simon 'a disheartening fiasco'.

Which composer wrote the circus marches and fanfares for 8½ after shooting wrapped?

Those tunes became signature sounds of Fellini's cinema; the film's dialogue was entirely dubbed afterwards, as was usual in Italy.

To whom did Fellini first outline the creative-block idea behind 8½ in an October 1960 letter?

Fellini wondered whether his blocked man should be a writer, a professional or a theatrical producer before settling on a film director.

Which two actresses joined Mastroianni in the lead roles of 8½ when production was ordered in 1962?

Fellini signed with producer Rizzoli and ran screen tests at Rome's Scalera Studios that spring.

Which Visconti film did 8½ beat to the Grand Prize at the Saint Vincent Film Festival?

At Cannes that April it drew near-universal acclaim but no prize because it was screened out of competition.