08.06.10 Isabella Ferrari
Was born on 31 March 1964 at Ponte dell'Oglio, a little village in the province of Piacenza. She spent her early childhood in Ca' Fogliazza (hence her real surname Fogliazza), a hamlet of six or seven houses in the hills around Piacenza. She moved to Piacenza in 1974 where she attended school and developed a great enthusiasm for dance. At 16 she entered a Miss Teenage contest – for fun – and ended up coming first. The prize was a recording of a single with WEA. In the following year she auditioned for Gianni Boncompagni, who was knocked out by her looks and signed her up for ‘Sotto le stelle'. Carlo Vanzina noticed her in this show and cast her as Selvaggia in "Sapore di mare". She then became the automatic choice for the part of the beautiful but naive and luckless girl in certain types of ‘summer holiday' films. She moved to Rome at 18 to establish her early career but after a few years she realised she had become typecast and decided to start taking risks. She began to alternate between cinema and theatre and in 1988 was chosen by Marco Tullio Giordana for "Appuntamento a Liverpool", playing the part of a girl intent on killing the football hooligan who took the life of her father. In 1989 she worked with Francesco Nuti, playing Lucia in "Willy Signori e vengo da lontano"; in 1994 she appeared in Giacomo Battiati's "Cronaca di un amore violato" and in 1995 in Ettore Scola's "Romanzo di un giovane povero". With this latter work she won the Venice Film Festival ‘Coppa Volpi' award for best supporting actress. In 2000 she took the role of Commissario Giovanna Scalise in "Distretto di polizia", under the direction of Renato De Maria. They ended up marrying in April 2002. The popularity of her character, known to many, many Italians, eventually led her to give up TV drama in order return to film. She played the lead in Renato De Maria's 2005 film "Amatemi". An ensemble role in “Saturn in Opposition” by Ferzan Ozpetek confirmed her capacity to take on different kinds of role, and thise case to be able to portray a mature woman, torn between conformism and the urge towards sexual and emotional freedom and a secret love affair with a much younger man. Her next work was “Quiet Chaos” by Antonello Grimaldi. In this film she plays a rich and charming woman, saved from drowning by Pietro Paladini in the very instant that his wife dies, unbeknownst to him. It is a difficult role and Ferrari acquits herself well, giving nice nuances of sensuality and intelligence to a highly ambiguous character. She went back to TV with the mini-series “Liberi di giocare”, playing a prison director who asks an ex-footballer to train up a prisoners football team. After this she was again enlisted by Ozpetek for the Sandro Petraglia-scripted “A Perfect Day”, in which she leaves her husband and takes her kids back to move back to her mother.
Filmography
1982 - Sapore di mare, di Carlo Vanzina
1983 - Sapore di mare 2 - Un anno dopo, di Carlo Vanzina
1983 - Il Ras del quartiere, di Carlo Vanzina
1984 - Domani mi sposo, di Francesco Massaro
1984 - Chewingum, di Biagio Proietti
1984 - Le bon roi Dagobert, di Dino Risi
1985 - Fracchia contro Dracula, di Neri Parenti
1986 - Il ragazzo del pony express, di Franco Amurri
1988 - Appuntamento a Liverpool, di Marco Tullio Giordana
1990 - Willy Signori e vengo da lontano, di Francesco Nuti
1992 - Gangsters, di Massimo Guglielmi
1992 - Allullo drom, di Tonino Zangardi
1992 - Nessuno mi crede, di Anna Carlucci
1995 - Romanzo di un giovane povero, di Ettore Scola
1996 - Danza della fata confetto, di Gillo Pontecorvo
1996 - Escoriandoli, di Antonio Rezza e Flavia Mastrella
1996 - Cronaca di un amore violato, di Giacomo Battiato
1996 - Hotel paura, di Renato De Maria
1997 – K, di Alexandre Arcady
1998 - Vite in sospeso, di Marco Turco
1998 - Dolce far niente, di Noe Caranfil
2000 - La lingua del santo, di Carlo Mazzacurati
2005 - Amatemi, di Renato De Maria
2005 - L'anniversaire, di Diane Kurys
2006 - Arrivederci amore, ciao, di Michele Soavi
2007 - Saturno contro, di Ferzan Ozpetek
2008 - Caos calmo, di Antonello Grimaldi
2008 - Un giorno perfetto, di Ferzan Ozpetek
2008 - Il seme della discordia, di Pappi Corsicato
2009 - Due partite, di Enzo Monteleone
