BOOK REVIEW: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life by Sophia Loren

Shane | 26 June 2015 | Reply

BOOK REVIEW: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life by Sophia Loren
Simon & Schuster Australia
November, 2014
Rrp $29.99
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
9/10

The divine Sophia Loren brings all the class, dignity and grace she exhibited in her many classic movie roles to the table when penning her autobiography.

Loren’s is a fascinating story, and she tells it well, but don’t expect any titillating or salacious tales – Loren fell deeply in love with Carlo Ponti at an early age (Loren was 15 and he 37 when they first met), and they remained happily together for 57 years until he died, aged 94, in 2007.

There is, however, fascinating meditations upon the art of the actor; heartwarming outpourings about family; detailed introspection about her childhood before and during World War II, born out of wedlock and into poverty; angry diatribes about the Italian government who firstly refused to recognise Ponti’s divorce from his first wife, threatening to charge him with bigamy until he and Loren annulled their first marriage, and then later locked her in prison for seventeen days in 1977 for later disproven tax charges.

Of most interest to followers of her much-lauded career will be the stories of the movies she worked on and the actors and directors she worked with. Most get showered with love and respect; the behind-the-scenes tales she tells are tender and gentle, perhaps reflecting a more sophisticated society than we now find ourselves in.

There is a little scorn along the way for a couple of co-workers, but even then she is gracious enough to isolate the issues she had with them and move forward without dwelling on the negatives.

Driven, stubborn, shy (though “evolved out of [her] shyness”, she writes) and introverted, Loren “scorns hypocrisy and pretense,” and “can’t stand approximation and negligence.” She brings all of that to this book, and more, making it a pure and refreshing read.

Above all, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow is full of charm. Beautifully translated from the original Italian by Sylvia Adrian Notini, it captivates as much as it’s author and subject does on the screen.