close
shape
Almanac
shape
Small format stories
shape
Team and contacts
close
01 September1950
Isa and the film camera
Author
Famiglia Barzizza
Format
16mm
Credits
Music & sound design by Lorenzo Valdesalici

The year is 1950 and the Barzizza family's new, flamboyant FIAT 1400 Cabriolet is racing along the Aurelia. At the wheel is a blonde girl, a young diva of Italian cinema, the little more than 20-year-old Isa Barzizza, whom the public sees more and more alongside the legendary Totò on screen and on stage, having by now become his muse and sidekick. Isa in fact holds her own against the overwhelming comedy of the Neapolitan actor and is much loved. With her in the car is Mamma Titina, while Pippo films in 16mm from another car. Isa launches herself into an overtake and then there she is, playfully pointing a 16mm camera at Pippo and then at us. These are the years of her enormous success, soon television will come and she has just met her love: for her these are the happiest moments. Ten years later, still on the Aurelia and still in a car, Isa will be the victim of a terrible car accident in which her husband, the television director Carlo Alberto Chiesa, will lose his life. In 1960, at the age of 31, Isa will leave the scenes and interrupt her career as an actress, dedicating herself to her only daughter, little Carlotta. "One day we went to celebrate our tenth year since we had known each other, we went to Forte dei Marmi, a place Carlo Alberto loved [...] and a bad accident took him away. There was no more talk of cinema and theatre [...] as he was no longer there, I had to stay close to my daughter'. Dedicated to Isa Barzizza, who passed away on 28 May 2023, at the age of 93.

Share