Dead Lina Wertmuller, Rita Pavone: “Huge pain”

“I am destroyed. I saw her a month ago, I went to her house, I phoned her to tell her I was in Rome. ‘Love for you the door is always open’, she replied. It is an enormous pain”. Thus Rita Pavone, reached on the phone by Adnkronos, comments on the death of Lina Wertmuller, which took place this morning in Rome. Pavone was very attached to the Roman director, both humanly and professionally: among the many collaborations, Wertmuller directed her in the unforgettable 1964 television ‘Gianburrasca’. “For me she was a second mother, an artistic mother with whom I started, because she was at Studio Uno – remembers Pavone visibly moved-. My life is a total transition of things between television, film, and she had also included me in Valerio Ruiz’s documentary film on her life, ‘Behind the white glasses’ ” . Pavone then remembers their last meeting, a month ago in Rome: “She was fine, she was fit on her sofa, white legs, varnished nails, bare feet. She walked everywhere barefoot.” Now “I’ll try to be there in every way, because I can’t miss his funeral”, adds Pavone. Who in paying homage to the famous director of masterpieces such as ‘Overwhelmed by an unusual destiny’, underlines the way in which she would like the world to remember her: “She is a woman who has had an Oscar nomination. It has never happened for anyone. woman as a director. She was a cornerstone: she had an intelligence, a sympathy, a humor and at the same time she was romantic and sentimental. All my affection for Zulima, her daughter. I hold her tightly “, concludes Pavone.