Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit. (Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze), no. 2070. Photo: Ghergo.

María Denis (1916-2004) was one of the most popular stars of Italian cinema under Fascist rule. Very successful were her Telefoni Bianchi films of the 1930s. Charges of collaboration tarnished her career after the war. Controversial were her claims that she had not been the mistress of Nazi police chief Pietro Koch and just used his infatuation with her to help anti-fascists get released, especially film director Luchino Visconti.

María Denis was born Maria Esther Beomonte in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1916. Her parents were Italian and her sister was the actress Michela Belmonte. María moved to Italy when she was 3 years old. She was still attending high school when she was discovered for the cinema. At 16, she started her career with the film La telefonista/The Telephone Operator (Nunzio Malasomma, 1932) featuring Isa Pola. She then played a small part in the comedy Gli uomini, che mascalzoni!/What Rascals Men Are (Mario Camerini, 1932), which launched Vittorio De Sica as a debonair film star. She played her first lead in Treno Popolare/Popular Train (Raffaelo Matarazzo, 1933), a typical Italian-style comedy about Sunday train trippers from Rome to Orvieto. In 1934 she had her breakthrough with the film Seconda B/Second B (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1934) as a flirtatious adolescent, who plays a cruel joke on her young professor. The film was a huge success and it was followed by more roles that made her a star of the Telefoni Bianchi cinema: a typical Italian genre of bourgeois comedies with elegant sets that featured white telephones. She appeared in the roles of a foundling, chamber maid or young teacher, and worked with such famous Italian directors of the period as Guido Brignone, Mario Camerini, and Alessandro Blasetti. For the latter, she appeared in 1860 (Alessandro Blasetti, 1934), his film about Garibaldi's expedition, and in his Contessa Di Parma/The Duchess of Parma (Alessandro Blasetti, 1937). According to John Francis Lane in his obituary of Denis in The Guardian, Blasetti mixed in this film ”not very successfully, the worlds of soccer and fashion”. Another popular film of the “brunette with a perky Latin temperament” was the nostalgic musical Napoli d'altri tempi/Naples in the past (Amleto Palermi, 1938) with Vittorio De Sica.

During the war, María Denis appeared with Fosco Giachetti in the Fascist propaganda film L'assedio dell'Alcazar/The Siege of Alcazar (Augusto Genina, 1940), about the besieged inhabitants of the fascist citadel in Toledo during the Spanish civil war. She played a Spanish girl whose soldier boyfriend is killed during the fighting. The film won the Mussolini Cup, the top prize at the 1940 Venice Film Festival, and one of the reviewers, who found much to praise in the film, including her performance, was Michelangelo Antonioni. Very popular were Addio giovinezza!/Farewell, youth! (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1940) set among students in Turin, La maestrina/The schoolmarm (Giorgio Bianchi, 1942) and Sissignora/Yes, Madam (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1942). Denis proved her versatility when she played with great sensitivity and refinement a blind girl in Le due orfanelle/The Two Orphans (1942, Carmine Gallone) alongside Alida Valli. She also starred in foreign productions like the French film La vie de bohème/La Bohème (Marcel l'Herbier, 1942-1945) opposite Louis Jourdan. At this time she met director Luchino Visconti and in her own words, she fell madly in love with the handsome, cultured aristocrat. When Anna Magnani had to pull out of what was to be his first film, Ossessione/Obsession (Luchino Visconti, 1942), Maria hoped that she would get the part, but the director preferred Clara Calamai. Though probably aware of his homosexuality, Denis continued to pursue him. In 1944, during the Nazi occupation of Rome, she was linked to Pietro Koch, the notorious Roman police chief. In 1946, while she was shooting the film Cronaca Nero/Black Chronicle (Giorgio Bianchi, 1947), Maria Denis was arrested as a collaborator and kept at the police headquarters in Rome for fourteen days. At her trial, she succeeded in convincing the court that she had only taken advantage of Koch's infatuation to help anti-fascists get released, in particular Visconti. (Visconti had been arrested and imprisoned for political sympathies closely linked to the partisans). She was subsequently acquitted.

Whether it was true or not that María Denis did in fact become Pietro Koch's lover either before or after Luchino Visconti´s arrest has never been confirmed. However, her film career was tarnished. After the war, she only found a few film parts, like in Peter Ustinov's Private Angelo (Michael Anderson, Peter Ustinov, 1949), filmed on location in Tuscany. Disappointed and bitter, she decided to retire from the cinema. She married a businessman in 1953 and became an interior decorator. Her last appearance was in the five-part compilation film Tempi nostri/The Anatomy of Love (Alessandro Blasetti, 1954) opposite Alberto Sordi. Throughout his life, Luchino Visconti claimed that Denis's involvement in his release was simply not true and refused to appear in court during her trial. Still, she maintained her story in her autobiography, 'Il gioco della verità' (Truth or dare) released in 1995, and again in the documentary which director Gianfranco Mingozzi was making about her shortly before her death. However, Visconti's sister Uberta claimed that Luchino's release was thanks to family connections and not to Denis. María Denis died in 2004 in Rome, Italy. She was survived by her son Filippo, who runs a coffee plantation in Costa Rica.

Sources: John Francis Lane (The Guardian), France-it (IMDb), MovieMail, Wikipedia (Italian), and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Tags:   Maria Denis Maria Denis María Denis María Italian Actress Actrice Attrice European Film Star Film Cinema Cine Kino Screen Movie Movies Filmster Star Vintage Postcard Postkarte Carte Postale Cartolina Postkaart Briefkarte Briefkaart Ansichtskarte Ansichtkaart B.F.F. Ballerini Fratini Ghergo

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Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit. (Casa Editr. Ballerini & Fratini, Firenze), no. 2069. Photo: Ghergo.

María Denis (1916-2004) was one of the most popular stars of Italian cinema under Fascist rule. Very successful were her Telefoni Bianchi films of the 1930s. Charges of collaboration tarnished her career after the war. Controversial are her claims that she had not been the mistress of Nazi police chief Pietro Koch and just used his infatuation with her to help anti-fascists get released, especially film director Luchino Visconti.

María Denis was born Maria Esther Beomonte in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1916. Her parents were Italian and her sister was the actress Michela Belmonte. María moved to Italy when she was 3 years old. She was still attending high school when she was discovered for the cinema. At 16, she started her career with the film La telefonista/The Telephone Operator (Nunzio Malasomma, 1932) featuring Isa Pola. She then played a small part in the comedy Gli uomini, che mascalzoni!/What Rascals Men Are (Mario Camerini, 1932), which launched Vittorio De Sica as a debonair film star. She played her first lead in Treno Popolare/Popular Train (Raffaelo Matarazzo, 1933), a typical Italian-style comedy about Sunday train trippers from Rome to Orvieto. In 1934 she had her breakthrough with the film Seconda B/Second B (Goffredo Alessandrini, 1934) as a flirtatious adolescent, who plays a cruel joke on her young professor. The film was a huge success and it was followed by more roles that made her a star of the Telefoni Bianchi cinema: a typical Italian genre of bourgeois comedies with elegant sets that featured white telephones. She appeared in the roles of a foundling, chamber maid or young teacher, and worked with such famous Italian directors of the period as Guido Brignone, Mario Camerini, and Alessandro Blasetti. For the latter, she appeared in 1860 (Alessandro Blasetti, 1934), his film about Garibaldi's expedition, and in his Contessa Di Parma/The Duchess of Parma (Alessandro Blasetti, 1937). According to John Francis Lane in his obituary of Denis in The Guardian, Blasetti mixed in this film ”not very successfully, the worlds of soccer and fashion”. Another popular film of the “brunette with a perky Latin temperament” was the nostalgic musical Napoli d'altri tempi/Naples in the past (Amleto Palermi, 1938) with Vittorio De Sica.

During the war, María Denis appeared with Fosco Giachetti in the Fascist propaganda film L'assedio dell'Alcazar/The Siege of Alcazar (Augusto Genina, 1940), about the besieged inhabitants of the fascist citadel in Toledo during the Spanish civil war. She played a Spanish girl whose soldier boyfriend is killed during the fighting. The film won the Mussolini Cup, the top prize at the 1940 Venice Film Festival, and one of the reviewers, who found much to praise in the film, including her performance, was Michelangelo Antonioni. Very popular were Addio giovinezza!/Farewell, youth! (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1940) set among students in Turin, La maestrina/The schoolmarm (Giorgio Bianchi, 1942) and Sissignora/Yes, Madam (Ferdinando Maria Poggioli, 1942). Denis proved her versatility when she played with great sensitivity and refinement a blind girl in Le due orfanelle/The Two Orphans (1942, Carmine Gallone) alongside Alida Valli. She also starred in foreign productions like the French film La vie de bohème/La Bohème (Marcel l'Herbier, 1942-1945) opposite Louis Jourdan. At this time she met director Luchino Visconti and in her own words, she fell madly in love with the handsome, cultured aristocrat. When Anna Magnani had to pull out of what was to be his first film, Ossessione/Obsession (Luchino Visconti, 1942), Maria hoped that she would get the part, but the director preferred Clara Calamai. Though probably aware of his homosexuality, Denis continued to pursue him. In 1944, during the Nazi occupation of Rome, she was linked to Pietro Koch, the notorious Roman police chief. In 1946, while she was shooting the film Cronaca Nero/Black Chronicle (Giorgio Bianchi, 1947), Maria Denis was arrested as a collaborator and kept at the police headquarters in Rome for fourteen days. At her trial, she succeeded in convincing the court that she had only taken advantage of Koch's infatuation to help anti-fascists get released, in particular Visconti. (Visconti had been arrested and imprisoned for political sympathies closely linked to the partisans). She was subsequently acquitted.

Whether it was true or not that María Denis did in fact become Pietro Koch's lover either before or after Luchino Visconti´s arrest has never been confirmed. However, her film career was tarnished. After the war, she only found a few film parts, like in Peter Ustinov's Private Angelo (Michael Anderson, Peter Ustinov, 1949), filmed on location in Tuscany. Disappointed and bitter, she decided to retire from the cinema. She married a businessman in 1953 and became an interior decorator. Her last appearance was in the five-part compilation film Tempi nostri/The Anatomy of Love (Alessandro Blasetti, 1954) opposite Alberto Sordi. Throughout his life, Luchino Visconti claimed that Denis's involvement in his release was simply not true and refused to appear in court during her trial. Still, she maintained her story in her autobiography, 'Il gioco della verità' (Truth or dare) released in 1995, and again in the documentary which director Gianfranco Mingozzi was making about her shortly before her death. However, Visconti's sister Uberta claimed that Luchino's release was thanks to family connections and not to Denis. María Denis died in 2004 in Rome, Italy. She was survived by her son Filippo, who runs a coffee plantation in Costa Rica.

Sources: John Francis Lane (The Guardian), France-it (IMDb), MovieMail, Wikipedia (Italian), and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Tags:   Maria Denis Maria Denis María Denis María Italian Actress Actrice Attrice European Film Star Film Cinema Cine Kino Screen Movie Movies Filmster Star Vintage Postcard Postkarte Carte Postale Cartolina Postkaart Briefkarte Briefkaart Ansichtskarte Ansichtkaart B.F.F. Ballerini Fratini Ghergo

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Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1942-XX. Photo: Ghergo.

Germana Paolieri (1906-1998) was an Italian stage and screen actress. After the war, she also worked for radio and television. As an actress, she flourished between the early 1930s and 1981, while as film actress she peaked in the 1930s and early 1940s, but also the mid-1950s.

Germana Paolieri, aka Germaine Paolieri, was born in Florence on 29 August 1906. At a very young age she started with ballet class. In the 1920s she entered the theatre companies of Garibalda Niccoli, Elsa Merlini e Dora Menichelli. From the early 1930s on Paolieri started her career as film actress. She starred in several opera films or films on opera composers and singers such as La cantante dell'Opera (Nunzio Malasomma 1932), La Wally (Guido Brignone 1932), Giuseppe Verdi (Carmine Gallone 1938), L'allegro cantante (Gennaro Righelli 1938), Il sogno di Butterfly (Gallone 1939), and La Sonnambula (Piero Ballerini 1941), a biopic on composer Vincenzo Bellini. Remarkable performances Paolieri also gave in the comedy Dono del mattino (Enrico Guazzoni 1932), and as Bianca Strozzi in the period piece Lorenzino de' Medici (Brignone 1935) with Alexander Moissi as Lorenzo de Medici whose sweetheart (Paolieri) is cherished by the perfidious Duke Alessandro (Camillo Pilotto) as well. Paolieri also played the wife of the title character in the at the time highly successful Italian film Luciano Serra pilota (Goffredo Alessandrini 1938). It starred Amedeo Nazzari as an ex-pilot who has abandoned wife, child and fatherland, but is called to duty when years after his son (Roberto Villa) crashes with a plane in Africa and is captured by enemies. In La forza bruta (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia 1941) Paolieri played a trapeze artist opposite Juan De Landa, Rossano Brazzi and Maria Mercader. Other memorable titles with Paolieri are Torna caro ideal! (Brignone 1939) with Claudio Gora and Kean (Brignone 1940) with Rossano Brazzi in his first major role as the actor Edmund Kean who competes with a prince for the hand of a married lady, played by Paolieri. Furthermore, she acted in La gerla di papà Martin (Mario Bonnard 1940) with Ruggero Ruggeri, Se son matti non li vogliamo (Esodo Pratelli 1941) again starring Ruggeri, and in particular in the historical melodrama Pia de' Tolomei (Pratelli 1941) in which Paolieri played the title role. During the war years she also had a supporting act as Lauretta in Veit Harlan’s extremely romantic film Immensee/ Il perduto amore (1943), starring Carl Raddatz and Kristina Söderbaum.

After the war, Paolieri pretty easily continued filming in mainly conventional dramas and comedies. In 1947-1948 she returned to the stage to play Lady Capulet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, directed by Renato Simoni (1875-1952), staged at the Teatro Romano in Verona in 1948, and starring Giorgio De Lullo and Edda Albertini. In the same year, Paolieri also starred in the play Cristo ha ucciso by Gian Paolo Callegari, directed by Guido Salvini at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. In 1949 Paolieri went back to the film set and had an intense film career, in particular, the mid-1950s, acting with directors like Vittorio De Sica, Vittorio Cottafavi, Augusto Genina, Carlo Borghesio, and Caro Campogalliani, while in the 1960s she played a.o. in Francesco Maselli’s cynical I delfini (1960) and in Sidney Lumet’s The Appointment (1969). In the 1950s Paolieri was a member of the theatre companies of Ruggero Ruggeri (as the first actress), the Piccolo Teatro of Palermo, and the Teatro stabile of Emilia-Romagna. She was also active on RAI radio in Prime piogge [First rains] by Enrico Pea, directed by Alberto Casella and broadcasted in 1957, while in the same year she was also visible on RAI TV in Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, directed by Claudio Fino. She also acted in TV series such as Scaramouche (1965), Oblomov (1966), Dossier Mata Hari (1967), I promessi sposi (1967), Madame Bovary (1978) and Adua (1981). Germana Paolieri died in Montecatini Terme, on 8 August 1998. She lies buried in the cemetery of Santa Croce sull'Arno (Pisa).

Sources: Wikipedia (Italian), and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Tags:   Germana Paolieri Germana Paolieri Italian Actress Actrice Attrice Schauspielerin Darstellerin Cinema Cine Kino Picture Screen Movie Movies Film Filmster Star Vintage Postcard Carte Postale Carte Cartolina Tarjet Postal Tarjet Postkarte Postkaart Briefkarte Briefkaart Ansichtskarte Ansichtkaart Rizzoli Ghergo 1942

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Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1939-XVIII. Photo: Ghergo. Sent by mail in 1940.

Germana Paolieri (1906-1998) was an Italian stage and screen actress. After the war, she also worked for radio and television. As an actress, she flourished between the early 1930s and 1981, while as film actress she peaked in the 1930s and early 1940s, but also the mid-1950s.

Germana Paolieri, aka Germaine Paolieri, was born in Florence on 29 August 1906. At a very young age she started with ballet class. In the 1920s she entered the theatre companies of Garibalda Niccoli, Elsa Merlini e Dora Menichelli. From the early 1930s on Paolieri started her career as film actress. She starred in several opera films or films on opera composers and singers such as La cantante dell'Opera (Nunzio Malasomma 1932), La Wally (Guido Brignone 1932), Giuseppe Verdi (Carmine Gallone 1938), L'allegro cantante (Gennaro Righelli 1938), Il sogno di Butterfly (Gallone 1939), and La Sonnambula (Piero Ballerini 1941), a biopic on composer Vincenzo Bellini. Remarkable performances Paolieri also gave in the comedy Dono del mattino (Enrico Guazzoni 1932), and as Bianca Strozzi in the period piece Lorenzino de' Medici (Brignone 1935) with Alexander Moissi as Lorenzo de Medici whose sweetheart (Paolieri) is cherished by the perfidious Duke Alessandro (Camillo Pilotto) as well. Paolieri also played the wife of the title character in the at the time highly successful Italian film Luciano Serra pilota (Goffredo Alessandrini 1938). It starred Amedeo Nazzari as an ex-pilot who has abandoned wife, child and fatherland, but is called to duty when years after his son (Roberto Villa) crashes with a plane in Africa and is captured by enemies. In La forza bruta (Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia 1941) Paolieri played a trapeze artist opposite Juan De Landa, Rossano Brazzi and Maria Mercader. Other memorable titles with Paolieri are Torna caro ideal! (Brignone 1939) with Claudio Gora and Kean (Brignone 1940) with Rossano Brazzi in his first major role as the actor Edmund Kean who competes with a prince for the hand of a married lady, played by Paolieri. Furthermore, she acted in La gerla di papà Martin (Mario Bonnard 1940) with Ruggero Ruggeri, Se son matti non li vogliamo (Esodo Pratelli 1941) again starring Ruggeri, and in particular in the historical melodrama Pia de' Tolomei (Pratelli 1941) in which Paolieri played the title role. During the war years she also had a supporting act as Lauretta in Veit Harlan’s extremely romantic film Immensee/ Il perduto amore (1943), starring Carl Raddatz and Kristina Söderbaum.

After the war, Paolieri pretty easily continued filming in mainly conventional dramas and comedies. In 1947-1948 she returned to the stage to play Lady Capulet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, directed by Renato Simoni (1875-1952), staged at the Teatro Romano in Verona in 1948, and starring Giorgio De Lullo and Edda Albertini. In the same year, Paolieri also starred in the play Cristo ha ucciso by Gian Paolo Callegari, directed by Guido Salvini at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. In 1949 Paolieri went back to the film set and had an intense film career, in particular, the mid-1950s, acting with directors like Vittorio De Sica, Vittorio Cottafavi, Augusto Genina, Carlo Borghesio, and Caro Campogalliani, while in the 1960s she played a.o. in Francesco Maselli’s cynical I delfini (1960) and in Sidney Lumet’s The Appointment (1969). In the 1950s Paolieri was a member of the theatre companies of Ruggero Ruggeri (as the first actress), the Piccolo Teatro of Palermo, and the Teatro stabile of Emilia-Romagna. She was also active on RAI radio in Prime piogge [First rains] by Enrico Pea, directed by Alberto Casella and broadcasted in 1957, while in the same year she was also visible on RAI TV in Oscar Wilde’s Lady Windermere’s Fan, directed by Claudio Fino. She also acted in TV series such as Scaramouche (1965), Oblomov (1966), Dossier Mata Hari (1967), I promessi sposi (1967), Madame Bovary (1978) and Adua (1981). Germana Paolieri died in Montecatini Terme, on 8 August 1998. She lies buried in the cemetery of Santa Croce sull'Arno (Pisa).

Sources: Wikipedia (Italian), and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Tags:   Germana Paolieri Germana Paolieri Italian Actress Actrice Attrice Schauspielerin Darstellerin Cinema Cine Kino Picture Screen Movie Movies Film Filmster Star Vintage Postcard Carte Postale Carte Cartolina Tarjet Postal Tarjet Postkarte Postkaart Briefkarte Briefkaart Ansichtskarte Ansichtkaart Rizzoli Ghergo 1939

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Italian postcard by Rizzoli & C., Milano, 1938. Photo: Ghergo.

Germana Paolieri (1906-1998) was an Italian stage and screen actress. After the war, she also worked for radio and television. As an actress, she flourished between the early 1930s and 1981, while as film actress she peaked in the 1930s and early 1940s, but also the mid-1950s.

Tags:   Germana Paolieri Italian Italy Italia Italiano Italiana Vintage Vedette Postcard Postkarte POstale Postkaart Postal Picture Cinema Carte Cartolina Cine Carte Postale Card Celebrity Costume Cinema Italiano Film Filmster Movies Movie Star 1930s 1940s Star Screen Schauspielerin Darstellerin Ansichtkaart Ansichtskarte ACtress Actrice Attrice Rizzoli 1938 Ghergo

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