Now, Loren is reportedly in the running once more, this time for a standout late-career turn in The Life Ahead (La vita davanti a sé), adapted from the novel by Romain Gary, and directed by her son Edoardo Ponti. Recently tipped by Variety as a contender for the 2021 awards, the 86-year-old could become the Academy’s oldest best actress nominee while also breaking Henry Fonda’s record for the longest gap between acting nominations (41 years).

Loren plays Madame Rosa, a Holocaust survivor living in a southern Italian port, who cares for the children of sex workers – a profession in which she was once employed. Magnetic screen newcomer Ibrahima Gueye is Momo, the orphaned Senegalese street kid who snatches Rosa’s bag, only to have genially protective Dr Coen (Renato Carpentieri) force him to return it, and to apologise. At first, sparks fly between these two chalk-and-cheese characters, each proudly defiant in their own way. But the doctor seems to spy a kinship between their predicaments, and entreats Rosa to take Momo in – albeit at a price. As Rosa’s health declines (she is increasingly given to bouts of trance-like disorientation), it falls to Momo to become her saviour – a neatly inevitable reversal of fortune.

The main selling point is Loren, who combines world-weary abrasiveness with a sense of something softer, turning Rosa into a believably divided character who puts a brave face on the future while seeking refuge from the past in the sanctuary of her lonely basement. Possessed of fiercely expressive features that can flit between anger and enchantment in an instant, she commands the screen, closely observed by Angus Hudson’s camera, which is drawn (like the audience’s gaze) to the glint in her eyes, the imperious tilt of her chin.

As for Gueye, he brings a vibrant authenticity and confidence to the narrator role of Momo, capturing both the bravado of a youth drawn to the temptations of drug-dealing street life and the innate vulnerability of a child displaced (geographically and culturally), attempting to choose between parental role models.

You can see the trailer of the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0ejncDxgCc&t=133s

source (review; video and picture): The Life Ahead review – Sophia Loren’s commanding comeback, The Guardian; Sophia Loren on “The Life Ahead”, CBS Sunday Morning, Youtube

A videó meghallgatása után próbáljátok megtalálni az alábbi mondatokban a hibás információkat és cseréljétek a videóban elhangzott helyes információkra.

1. Her career spans over 17 years.
2. The time for her to start filming again was a bit complicated but wonderful.
3. Sophia bravely mentioned her real age.
4. Sophia Loren is 87 years old.
5. Sophia says that everybody ages except her.
6. Sophia claims that she doesn’t look wonderful for her age.
7. Sophia’s mother was a divorced woman who looked after Sophia.
8. Sophia made this film because her character looked like her mother.
9. Sophia’s mother was brave inside but looked strong.
10. The director of the film is Sophia’s elder son.
11. His son, who happens to be a director, would be sane if he hadn’t chosen her mother as the main character.
12. Ibrahima Gueye who plays Momo, is an experienced child actor.
13. Ponti second-guessed his choice of Gueye playing the opposite of Sophia.
14. Gueye couldn’t see Sophia in the way as Ponti could.
15. Gueye lived separately from Sophia and her son during the shooting.
16. Gueye could look at Sophia Loren and see her as a star.
17. Sophia would have welcomed the interviewer and the staff for a pasta in her Italian home.
18. Sophia Loren was the second to win ‘the best actress Oscar’ in a foreign language film – Two Women – in 1961.
19. Sophia never doubts herself.
20. For Sophia every film she plays in is as if it was part of her career.

keys/megoldások:
1. 70 years; 2. was fun and wonderful; 3. She didn’t mention it but the narrator mentioned it later;
4. 86; 5. So does she, ‘me, too’; 6. she looks wonderful; 7. she was an unmarried, single woman;
8. Her character reminded her a lot about her mother; 9. She was fragile inside;
10. younger one; 11. He would have been insane/idiot; 12. It is his first film;
13. He never second-guessed it.; 14. Gueye could see her in the same way as Ponti could.;
15. They all lived together, under one roof to know each other better and create a bond.;
16. He could look at her and see an Italian mother as well as the star.;
17. in her home in Switzerland; 18. She was the first;
19. She doubts herself every moment.; 20. as if it was her first film

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