Serena Grandi has credited director Tinto Brass with teaching her how to act for the camera, saying the lessons stayed with her throughout her career. In an interview with ANSA, she remembered him with “respect and gratitude,” describing him as cultured, ironic and perceptive.
Brass taught her how to position herself in front of a camera and use her voice, Grandi said. She also praised his wife, Carla Cipriani, known as “Tinta,” whom she described as an important inspiration for many of his films and a constant presence on set.
Grandi said she had expected Brass’s death after their last telephone conversation. She had seen him in Venice about two years earlier, in a wheelchair, and recalled that he was lucid. She was glad, she added, that he had Caterina Varzi by his side, describing her as caring and intelligent based on what she had heard.
Brass directed Grandi in Miranda, released in 1985, and again in Monella 13 years later. Grandi said Miranda was a major success, earning six million lire when a ticket cost 6,000 lire. She recalled that Brass chose her after finding a torn piece of a newspaper featuring one of her photographs while walking beside a river. He called her and told her the role was hers.
Grandi also recalled that Brass wanted her to gain weight for the part and took her to trattorias in Chioggia with Cipriani. Miranda, she said, drew admirers from across Italy. The film loosely drew on Carlo Goldoni’s comedy La Locandiera and was set in the early 1950s in the Po Valley. Grandi played the owner of an inn waiting for her husband, Gino, who had gone missing in the war.
Sources: ANSA Cultura.