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@ppoli611674629039 · 27 Nov 2020

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Doris Duranti

#cinema #peopletoknow 

Doris Duranti (1917-1995) aka Dora Durante, was one of the first divas of Italian cinema, actress of the "white telephones" trend, a film season ranging from 1936 to 43, so-called by the presence on the set of sophisticated white telephones, a sign of economic well-being, unlike the more common black phones. Recurring in these films were references to divorce, which was then prohibited, and to adultery, punishable by jail. It was also called cinema déco due to the strong presence of furniture objects that recalled that style - modern, decorative and kitsch at the same time - made of lacquers, inlaid woods, shark or zebra skin, zigzag lines, V, ray. In the cinema of white telephones an enthusiastic Italy was reflected, represented by the rationalist architectural style, a society that wanted to appear well-off and urbanized, whereas, however, it was still rural and hungry. The bourgeois setting recalled the American comedies of Frank Capra.
Doris was beautiful with an aggressive and exotic beauty - in fact, the role that made her known was that of an African - she moved in an elegant way, she was suitable for femme fatale and sinful roles.
In the film "Carmela", based on a story by Edmondo de Amicis, she showed herself topless, giving scandal, and also the start of the famous quarrel with Clara Calamai, her eternal rival, who had done the same in "La cena della beffe". All her life, Doris kept saying that she had been shot on her feet, her breasts naturally soaring and high.
Right on the set of Carmela she met the hierarch Alessandro Pavolini, minister of culture, married with three children. It was love at first sight, a love that was first opposed and then approved by Mussolini himself. When the regime fell, Pavolini, before being killed, managed to make her flee to Switzerland, where she was incarcerated and attempted suicide by cutting her veins. Later, she married a policeman and moved with him to South America. Upon returning to Italy, he met Mario Ferretti, a famous journalist, and emigrated with him to Santo Domingo, where he opened a restaurant and where he died in 1995.
In particular, her roles in “Cavalleria rusticana”, taken from a short story by Verga, “The Countess of Castiglione”, “Resurrection”, transposition of the novel by Tolstoy, are worthy of note. She also worked with directors Alessandro Blasetti and Giuseppe Patroni Griffi.
“Calafuria”, from 1943, is set in our city and is one of her most successful interpretations.
In old age, she published a memoir from which director Alfredo Giannetti drew the television film: "Doris, a diva of the regime."