From Sophia Loren to Monica Bellucci, 17 Times Italian Bombshells Ruled the Venice Film Festival
Just as Cannes has its effortlessly chic French girls, the Venice Film Festival has always been the undisputed domain of the Italian bombshell. Since the showcase’s inception nine decades ago, these impossibly glamorous women have shimmied off their private water taxis and onto the Lido in showstopping ball gowns, with dramatic cat eyes and lashings of mascara, their hair teased up to perfection and eye-wateringly expensive jewels draped around their necks. Among them were Fellini heroines like Claudia Cardinale; Michelangelo Antonioni’s bewitching muse Monica Vitti; the always elegant Sophia Loren; and Monica Bellucci, still the very definition of va-va-voom.
As we count down to the event’s 81st edition, we look back at some of its guests’ most dazzling moments from festivals past.
Photo: Getty Images1/171953
Italian starlet Leonora Ruffo poses for photographers at the 14th Venice Film Festival.
Photo: Getty Images2/171955
For a water taxi ride in the rain, Sophia Loren chooses a wasp-waisted skirt suit with bow detailing at the 16th edition of the festival.
Photo: Getty Images3/171956
Italian bombshell Gina Lollobrigida and her husband, Milko Skofic, take their seats for the start of the festival in 1956.
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Italian stalwart Elsa Martinelli in a one-shouldered showstopper at a party during the 17th Venice Film Festival.
Photo: Getty Images5/171958
Sophia Loren soaks up the sun on a flower-filled terrace at the 19th edition of the showcase.
Photo: Getty Images6/171958
Claudia Cardinale, clad in a leopard-print coat, hat, and gloves, pictured on the back of a water taxi at the 1958 festival.
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No one can strike a pose quite like Sophia Loren, as evidenced here in 1958.
Photo: Getty Images8/171958
At yet another event, the Italian actor is all smiles in a classic ’50s ball gown and glittering jewels. This was the year the future Oscar winner took home her first major accolade: the Venice Film Festival’s Volpi Cup for best actress, for her role in The Black Orchid.
Photo: Getty Images9/171959
Italian actor and singer Antonella Lualdi dazzles at the 20th Venice Film Festival while promoting Golden Lion contender Web of Passion alongside the film’s director, Claude Chabrol.
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Monica Vitti is the picture of serenity on the back of a water taxi in 1962.
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Claudia Cardinale parties with Elizabeth Taylor during the 23rd iteration of the showcase.
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With her sultry eye make-up and bouncy hair, it’s clear why Monica Vitti was Tanya from The White Lotus’s forever muse.
Photo: Getty Images13/171962
Elbow-length gloves, Bvlgari jewels, and a sharp cat eye are the only finishing touches Gina Lollobrigida’s floor-length white gown needs at a party in Venice in 1962.
Photo: Getty Images14/171965
A young Warren Beatty with Claudia Cardinale, dressed in a white fur cape and dramatic earrings, at a party during the 26th Venice Film Festival. She was the titular star of Luchino Visconti’s Sandra, which scooped that year’s Golden Lion.
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Claudia Cardinale seen perching on the edge of a water taxi and taking in the view of the Grand Canal, at the 28th edition of the festival.
Photo: Getty Images16/171990
Flanked by Anjelica Huston and Lauren Hutton, a 58-year-old Monica Vitti looks as glamorous as ever at a party during the 47th Venice Film Festival.
Photo: Getty Images17/172005
Monica Bellucci stuns on the red carpet—thanks to a skin-tight black gown and an opportune gust of wind—at the premiere of The Brothers Grimm at the 62nd Venice Film Festival.
