Giuditta Rissone was on the stage since she was a child. The history of ‘Italian-style’ theatre is characterised by families that, across the generations, brought to life characters and situations from the folk tradition and beyond. A versatile acting talent, appreciated by critics and public alike, Rissone became the first young actress to join Dario Niccodemi’s company, at the beginning of the 1920s. She later worked alongside Luigi Almirante, Sergio Tofano and finally Vittorio De Sica, who learned much from her about being on stage. From theatre to the Za-Bum variety show, she gave her voice to both dramatic and comic characters, but she didn’t sing. Singing terrified her, and it was Vittorio who encouraged her, who literally set the right tone so they could duet together on the final song of the show, Teddy e il suo partner, which we can hear again after almost 70 years thanks to a 78rpm record preserved in the family archives. Vittorio, the love of her life, the father of Emi, their beloved daughter, who today talks about the actress and mother Titta, taking a walk down memory lane. Photographs, rare posters and artefacts, but also home movies that give a never-before-seen view of an atypical family group. On one side, the Rissones, theatrical, but from the Piedmont and stalwart, and, on the other, the De Sicas, petit-bourgeois, but with a strongly anarchic Neapolitan spirit. The documentary shows the stages of the actress’s career, but also those of her life as a woman. Her adventurous childhood on stage with the Rissones, the set designer father and dressmaker mother; acting alongside her talented brother Checco, whom Emi affectionately recalls. Then meeting Vittorio and the story of a woman who, having grown up in an artistic environment and at a time of great female emancipation, chose to dedicate herself to family. 

Anna Masecchia, Michela Zegna