Mastroianni show highlights the irony of a unique icon

(ANSA) - Rome, October 26 - An exhibit on movie icon Marcello Matroianni is opening Friday at Rome's Ara Pacis Museum to focus on the actor's self-deprecating irony.
    A star who refused to be one, Mastroianni is presented to the public through a selection of 600 photos, curated by Gian Luca Farinelli.
    The exhibit runs through February 17, 2019.
    Photos, videos and scenes from Mastroianni's movies trace back, with a hint of nostalgia, the life of an artist who said he lived "between parentheses" an extraordinary existence on set and on stage along with the many people he met throughout his career.
    The show opens with his myths, from Gary Cooper to Clark Gable, as well as artists who have made Italy's movie history such as Vittorio De Sica, Aldo Fabrizi and Anna Magnani to document Mastroianni's incredible humility and how he involuntarily became an international icon. The actor's lightness and melancholic nature, his intelligence and lack of vanity emerge from portraits of the man and artist.
    Visitors are provided an insight into his many films, in particular Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita and 8 e Mezzo, through images that have become iconic.
    The photos highlight his special relationship with Fellini, as well as other directors including Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi, Alessandro Blasetti, who first cast Mastroianni with Sophia Loren, and Luigi Comencini.
    The photos also give an insight into his theater productions, including A Streetcar Named Desire, before which he famously panicked and was dragged on stage by Vittorio Gassman, and then his last performance in Le Ultime Lune (the last moons).
    His self-deprecating style emerges from the narrative, along with his refusal to be called a sex symbol and a great actor.
    He chose his roles carefully and courageously, such as the impotent protagonist of Il Bell'Antonio (the handsome Antonio) directed by Mauro Bolognini and a homosexual in Ettore Scola's Una Giornata Particolare (A Special Day).
    The show also focuses on his modest childhood in Ciociaria, a rural area in Lazio, and on the first movies he made to make money, on his family and his beloved daughters Chiara and Barbara, who has recently died.
    The work portrayed by the show includes the documentary made by his partner, Anna Maria Tatò, "Mi ricordo, sì, mi ricordo" (I remember, yes, I remember).
    The result is an insight into the story of a cultured, elegant and sober man as well as of 50 years of Italian history.
    "Mastroianni showed a very deep kind of irony - even in the face of his imminent death, he spoke about life with joy and this is a great teaching for us all", said the curator, Gian Luca Farinelli.
    He created his whole career on his own terms, noted Farinelli and "he chose the right directors, he put actors at ease".
    "He created a new type of Italian who did not prevaricate, who was able to duet with actresses and who also knew how to lose".