“Tim Burton? How nice to make a film with him, the person I love” – Corriere.it

“He was the one who made me discover it Diabolik from Mario Bava when I told him that I was Altea from Vallenberg. He knows everything about Italian cinema, including what was once less noticed and has now become a cult. Monica Bellucci came to the Rome Film Festival for the preview of the final chapter of the Manetti Bros. trilogy about the King of Terror (Diabolik, who are you? in cinemas from November 30th with 01 with Giacomo Gianniotti, Valerio Mastandrea, Miriam Leone and Bellucci) accompanied by her boyfriend Tim Burton, with whom she walked beaming on the red carpet. “I am happy to be here with this film. Manetti’s sets are full of joy, we work hard but without pain, just the way I like it. My role is great.”

What do you appreciate about her?

“Firstly, it is a creation of the Giussani sisters, who invented such original characters back in the 1960s. They were emancipated themselves: artists, entrepreneurs and visionaries, in a world dominated by men. I am fascinated by my Duchess’s courage, independence and sensuality, which correspond to those of Eva Kant.”

The Manettis say that women dominate in this third chapter.

“Real. A complicity arises between Altea and Miriam’s Eva Kant, a great playmate. They are two opposite femininities that are similar. One a thief, the other an aristocrat, united by the love of their men. And it amuses me that Altea breaks social conventions to be with a police officer, Ginko, and they finally kiss in the sunlight.

Did you really love “Diabolik” as a child?

“Yes and not only that, I learned to read from comics. I always liked the somewhat extreme femininity of the drawings.”

Cleopatra in “Asterix”, Persephone in “Matrix”, the Bond girl and even Befana: they are attracted to fantastic roles.

“I have also played more painful roles, in Small,
Irreversible… I like to dress up and wear clothes that are far from me, in other eras and dimensions. I believe it every time. Acting is a representation of life, not life itself. But I always carry something of my own.

Many of their colleagues, in France and Italy, become directors. She?

“I don’t feel the need. I have too much respect for the direction. But most importantly, I continue to learn as an actress. The passion never dies. I’m happy that directors choose me for roles like Altea or Tom Volf for his roles Maria Callas: letters and memoirs. But I’ve lived so many other people’s lives that I now enjoy living my own.

His daughter Deva is now very active: she is Angelica from the series “The Leopard”.

“I’m happy for her, the important thing is that she has fun.” The series begins with the novel by Tomasi di Lampedusa, it is not a remake of Visconti’s film. It won’t have the same weight as the comparison with Claudia Cardinale.”

What are you filming?

«Parisian paradise, The new film by Marjane Satrapi, a courageous director: a bittersweet comedy with many intertwining stories. I am an opera singer who is in the late stages of his career. And the comedy arrives on Prime on October 23rd Mafia mom with Toni Colette, who plays an American businesswoman who inherits from her Italian grandfather, and when she gets here she meets this Italian woman, Bianca, the advisor to the man who, as she’ll find out, was a powerful mafia boss.

And the highly anticipated “Beetlejuice 2”?

“Tim is almost done. He still has a few days left after the end of the US actors’ strike. For me it’s a great experience: I shot with a great director, who is the person I love. And that makes me discover his Italian cinema: we saw three films by Mario Bava together.