If you have been following my blog lately, you'd know that I've been watching a lot of Italian neorealist and modernist cinema. The last two films I've watched - 8½ and as of this evening, Luchino Visconti's Le notti bianche (White Nights) - featured Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni. This guy must have invented 'cool' because he was doing it before everybody.
He was the premier Italian actor of the postwar era, and considered among the most popular international stars in movie history. He made his film debut in 1947 but were rarely screened outside of Italy. Mastroianni's international breakthrough was Fellini's 1960 masterpiece, La Dolce Vita - a long (very long...to the point where I fell asleep), enigmatic exposé of the lives of Rome's wealthy socialites and partygoers. The picture was a global smash, and star Mastroianni, portraying a jaded, disillusioned gossip columnist, became a worldwide success. Since then, Mastroianni has starred in scores and scores of films up until his death in 1996.
After seeing Mastroianni in these films, I definately consider him one of my favorite actors - a list that only consists of 3 other actors (Benicio del Toro, Gael García Bernal, and Ed Norton). He has a presence about him on screen, where he can be sincere, even when meeting him in an alley at the middle of the night, but can also evoke a distanced, expressionless demeanor and still brings this element of cool to every role he's in. He has the look of a movie star.
I recommend paying off your late fees and going to the library for his films because most video stores don't carry the old Italian ones and expect to pay $40+ for Criterion Collection editions in stores. Unless you go on eBay, where you can find Criterion for really cheap.
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