Loren cd set Oscar nod gap record with new film-Variety

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 2 - Sophia Loren could set a new record for the gap between Oscar nominations if she gets a nod for new Netflix offering The Life Ahead, Variety reported at the weekend.
    The Italian screen legend could beat the 41 years between Henry Fonda's Grapes of Wrath (1941) and On Golden Pond (1982), by setting a 56-year record between her new film and Marriage Italian Style in 1965.
    She would also become the oldest nominee at 86, a year older than Emmanuelle Riva, who was nominated for 'Amour'.
    If she manages to go all the way to the Dolby Theatre and win, she would not only break Jessica Tandy's record as the oldest winner in the category, but also the oldest acting winner in history.
    Loren won an Oscar in 1962 for 'La ciociara' (Two Women), from the Alberto Moravia novel, which made her the first actor to win an Academy Award for a foreign-language film.
    The Life Ahead was directed by Loren's son Edoardo Ponti.
    It airs on Netflix from November 13.
    Loren had not acted since 2013's 'La voce umana' (Human Voice), also by Ponti, from the Jean Cocteau play.
    In the new pic, inspired by Romain Gary's novel 'La vie devant soi', Loren plays Madame Rosa, an elderly Jewess and former prostitute, who to make ends meet houses children in difficulty at her small flat in Bari.
    One of the kids who ends up under her wing is Momo' , a turbulent street urchin of Senegalese extraction (played by extraordinary debutant Ibrahima Gueye).
    Nothing apparently unites these two characters, who are separated by age, ethnicity, and religion, but despite this the hearts of this woman, assailed by absences, and of this small boy, too smart to get into trouble, will be entwined forever.
    "The character of Madame Rosa," said Loren, holding 47-year-old Ponti's hand throughout Friday's video presentation from her home in Geneva, "reminds me a lot of my mother.
    "It's true, I stayed away from the film set for many years, but I hardly noticed. I needed silence, to be with my children, to see them grow.
    Loren's other son by late film producer Carlo Ponti is Carlo Ponti Jr, 52, She has four grandchildren.
    Loren said she had one regret, not playing the Monaca di Monza, an iconic character from Italy's greatest historical novel 'I Promessi Sposi' (The Betrothed), as great director Luchino Visconti had suggested.
    "Many years ago a great director like Luchino Visconti proposed to me to play the Monaca di Monza but nothing came of it, and I don't even remember why. Pity, it was a character I really loved". (ANSA).