Although it has been more than a decade since Sophia Loren last graced the screen, LA Times film critic Robert Abele wrote that her new film, The Life Ahead is "a compact master class in the movie star's craft…exquisitely tailored glamour and deft characterization working seamlessly in tandem."
Edoardo Ponti, the movie's director, is also Loren's youngest son, and he joined Spectrum News 1 anchor Lisa McRee on LA Times Today to talk about the project and what it was like working with his mother.
Ponti has been the director for his mother before, and she is an actress who is not afraid, has no vanity when it comes to her characterizations.
"My mother is smart, and she is looking for great characters to inhabit and to sink her teeth in. So, she had known about the book many years ago; it is a book that accompanied our lives for many years. So, when I offered her the opportunity to do the role now at her age, she jumped on it because it is a wonderful character," Ponti said.
At the heart of this film is the relationship between Madame Rosa and Momo. Ponti said he auditioned more than 350 children for the role of Momo. Actor Ibrahima Gueye ended up getting the part.
"When I met him, I was overwhelmed by the light in his eyes. Even though this is his first film, he very much thinks like an actor. When we did our audition, the audition was one of the movie scenes; after having stolen certain candlesticks, he tries to sell them off to a criminal. And, the audition process was the improv of him trying to sell. So, he walked into the room; the door got stuck, and normally, at that point, kids stop with the audition, but he used the door getting stuck as part of the scene. And from that moment on, he astounded me day in day out with the kind of instinct that he had. Of course, his work ethic; he was very precise, learned his lines, and knew his parts very much like my mother. So, they had a similar work ethic which absolutely helped in the process," Ponti added.
To demystify Sophia Loren's iconic image, Ponti made the movie cast live together during the preproduction and the film's principal photography phase.
"I wanted Gueye to see and live with the woman that I know. The Sophia that raised me. Like this, what established was this authentic and familial relationship, which absolutely helped. Especially in the beginning of the movie because he felt more comfortable saying all these things to her," Ponti said.
When it comes to Madame Rosa's role, some scenes were moving for Ponti since his mother portrayed her.
"I cried maybe three times a day. I get moved easily. I was moved not so much by the dramatic nature of the scene; what moved me was my mother's ability to express truth in a look, a gesture, in a turn of the head. And sometimes she did that effortlessly, and it was always so pitch-perfect. It is not as emotional shooting the scene; what is emotional is cutting it in the editing room. Because when I shoot it, I have the power to say 'cut,' and then my mother wakes up again. But when you start cutting the scene, I cannot cut anymore; I am seeing something that is going on in time without me being able to control it, and then it becomes very emotional."
Ponti said he learned some great lessons from his parents.
"My father taught me something fundamental early on. It is a question that he always asked himself when he prepared a movie. And that was, 'why are you doing this movie?' And to say that I love the story is not enough. What he meant was, what can this movie bring to the world? That is something very important that my father taught me. And my mother taught me to be grounded. My mother is a woman who has never been defined by success, by her spotlight, and by fame. My mother has always been defined by her values. She never lost sight of where she came from. Those roots are what have inspired her throughout her life and today."