Chapter Twelve

Here we explore The Barefoot Contessa. It's a great film although, for today's audience, there is an awful lot of talking. I always think it would make a great stage play. Widely available on streaming platforms. The version shown above has a very good commentary addition.

We begin this chapter back in the via Sistina apartment with Rossano doing his best to ruin a song and driving Lydia 'crazy'.

The black and white photo didn't make the book because a) the quality is very poor and b) we weren't sure whether this was a family photo. So, for the time being it's on this site and shows Rossano joking about with Lydia. Great photo and one I would have loved to have had in the book as his nephew, Carlo, said it showed his aunt and uncle as he remembers them - always messing around.

This was one of those films where there seemed to be more interesting things going on behind the scenes than on the screen. It wasn't, at times, a very happy crew by any stretch of the imagination. The dynamic between the leading characters makes for an enlightening read on what goes on behind the scenes. A dominant factor, at that time, was the fact that Ava Gardner had split up with Frank Sinatra so that was simmering away in the background.

Thanks to The Everett Collection Inc for allowing me to show this image in the book as well as on the website. Here you see Rossano and Ava Gardener. In the background are Humphrey Bogart and Valentina Cortese. Valentina was a very close friend of the Brazzi's and appeared alongside Rossano in numerous stage plays and films on the Continent.

By the time of The Barefoot Contessa, Rossano was receiving fifteen to twenty thousand letters a month. This doubled after Summertime. Here he is with a stack of fan mail, signing photos.