LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) - When Sophia Loren is thrown a tribute like Nov. 12's scheduled gala at AFI Fest, attendees can get an intoxicating glimpse of classic-era Euro cinema glamour, of which Loren remains one of the last living representatives. Film fans recall a half-century's worth of skillful performances in every genre. Looking both forward and back, AFI will screen a restored print of Oscar-nominated "Marriage Italian Style," as well as a new version of Jean Cocteau's "Human Voice," helmed by son Edoardo Ponti. As for the lady herself, after competitive and honorary Oscars, a record 10 David Di Donatello awards, five Golden Globes and threescore trophies and tributes, you'd think it would all be old hat by now. "Never enough. Never enough," she burbles. "I feel very important when they give me an award. I like it, I like it, I enjoy it. I feel like a star." MGM's lire kept her in the city long enough to attract producers, who featured the sprightly ingenue in a series of frothy sex farces beginning with Vittorio De Sica's "The Gold of Naples." "Comedy was fun for me because I come from Naples," she says. "All the dialects and the gestures of everyday life, I had it all inside of me, in my blood." The diva is in a reminiscent frame of mind these days, with new memoir "Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life" in bookstores. "Especially for me, because I did not have an education in acting, actually. I learned to play scenes through the things that happened to me in life. So I always check inside myself. 'What can I pull out to give the best I can give, emotionally?'" There was plenty to draw upon when De Sica tapped her for the melodrama "Two Women." She's a shopkeeper escaping war-torn Rome with her adolescent daughter, only to encounter rape and death in the countryside. "I was a little scared. That was an imposing and a very difficult role for me. But De Sica sent me a telegram: 'You trust me. If I ask you to do that, it means that I think you can do it well. You'll be great.'" Loren takes pride in her cinematic legacy, citing 1977's "A Special Day" with Mastroianni as one she wishes critics and buffs would revisit. Yet real, not reel life brings her the greatest gratification. She still cooks ("What do you mean, still? I cook"), eggplant Parmigiana being a favorite. "Also pasta fagioli. If I smell beans, I get emotional, I love them so much." Above everything else, is family. "Since I was a kid, my dreams in life were always to be married in a white dress, which I didn't. To have children, which I did, two wonderful boys. And to be a grandmother, that was the greatest."
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