“Alain Delon left me a note at the hotel. I rushed to his room. Volonté became my friend»- Corriere.it

In life a countess, in the cinema a queen. Marina Stork the chic rebel aristocrat against widespread morality. His friends? Gianni Agnelli, Jeanne Moreau, Gregory Peck, Jackie Kennedy, Mick Jagger… Marguerite Yourcenar was his teacher. Marina is 88 years old, and has never tried to hide or show off. I didn’t have precise beliefs about sexual choices, I’ve always believed in meeting people.

Her grandfather founded the Venice Film Festival, she tells it like this: In 1932 this gentleman saw that American actors were going on vacation to Venice and to help his hotels he put up a sheet to show films. She was the first producer in the world to win an Oscar with Investigation of a citizen above suspicion. On May 10th I will receive the Donatello’s David
to career. He has a disease, the disease he talks about in his autobiography (written with Sara D’Ascenzo del Courier of the Veneto) outgoing for Marsilio, entitled I still hope.

Why this title?

It was the motto of the Cicogna house from the 15th century, it was always difficult to choose one, and this one was not pompous. The book is a story cut in two. Up to the age of 84 I had a regular life, I still skied quite well, from one day to the next I almost couldn’t move. The boring disease acts on the psyche and changes the values ​​of things, you don’t give a damn about what you wanted to do.

What does David represent?
I am very pleased. something unexpected and bizarre happened, they have remembered me for some years. I met Giorgio Napolitano when he was President and he told me, you have done a lot for cinema. Yes, but I’ve never had any recognition, I replied. Three days later the Quirinale called me, you had a Knight of Merit. Then they called me back, we were wrong, Grand Officer of the Republic.

What cinema did you support?

Never the very popular one, and not even the great directors. Fellini and Visconti, with whom I was distantly related, brought producers to their knees. Mine were films by artists who were also writers, such as Patroni Griffi. Most of them mirrored my freedom. In Helga for the first time a childbirth was seen. I could have done more, I worked in the 1970s, then I returned from the USA and only comedy films went to Italy. There was the tragedy of my brother Bino’s suicide, and for the debts left my mother had to sell everything. The world of cinema was against us.

Was it hard for a woman?

Yes, they made your shoes by smoothing your fur. It was just me and then, as distributor, Vania Traxler. The environment was chauvinist. I failed to produce The conformist
not even breaking my head, and the same for The night porter
by Liliana Cavani, who is very reserved, not so popular, I told the artistic director of the Venice Exhibition Alberto Barbera that she didn’t get what she deserves and I’m happy that they will give her the Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Her film on Galileo is a masterpiece. Liliana had intellectual needs that weren’t expected of a woman in the past.

Chapter Oscars.

My father, who was an engineer unrelated to cinema, got the Oscar for producing bike thieves
and I for Investigation
directed by Elio Petri, with Volont who strangely became my friend. A murderous commissioner. The year before there had been the massacre in Piazza Fontana. You’ll have everyone on you, they told me. Zeffirelli accused me of having produced a communist film. In Cannes they gave me the jury prize, not the Palme d’Or. So I didn’t go to the Oscars, convinced I wouldn’t get it. Instead….

What were the greats you met like?

Marilyn Monroe was attracted to anything Italian, she recently married Joe DiMaggio, she communicated insecurity about the search for her character, she drove the directors crazy on the set, where should I put my finger, and my leg? Marlon Brando stood to one side, silent, mysterious. Greta Garbo, with whom I went on a cruise on the Côte d’Azur with Onassis, was nice, funny, the complete opposite of the seriousness she said she was. Next to a nudist beach she said to me: that gentleman seems naked to me, but it’s been so many years since I’ve seen a naked man, maybe I’m wrong. But we’re not going to make the list, are we?.

But we can’t avoid talking about her friend Jackie Kennedy.
She was physically powerful, not delicate at all, she had an almost masculine figure. The determined memory of her, she had nothing naïve, she knew what she wanted, even when she went against the tide and showed it by marrying Onassis in second marriage amid general scandal. He was not interested in culture but spoke eight languages. The opposite of Jackie that she was fascinated by Europe.

She had a flirtation with Alain Delon and was with Florinda Bolkan for 20 years.

Alain in Megve you left a note under the door of a hotel room that I shared with the beautiful Ljuba Rizzoli: I’ll wait for you in room 104. The addressee was missing. I snatched the note from Lyuba’s hands and ran off myself. I was a little girl in love with a myth, I floated suspended in another dimension for a few weeks. Florinda, I met her in Paris at the home of Elsa Martinelli and Willy Rizzo. She had just returned from a vacation at the Kennedy home. I found her very special, sunny, free, uninhibited, dry physique, childish smile, slightly androgynous appearance. She had been the executive stewardess of the Varig airline, she accompanied the most famous passengers. We got to know each other little by little. I gave little weight to her escapades, but she refused to accept mine with Benedetta, who had to hide in a closet, among my clothes. I have lived there for almost 40 years.

Did Gianni Agnelli like cinema or just Anita Ekberg?

At his house he screened a film every night, but he seldom saw it through to the end. He got bored easily. He had a flirtation with Lex Barker, the Tarzan of cinema; Gianni entered the room with a torch to see if he was so handsome: can you show me this Tarzan? Not so bad actually, he said. With Anita he had a relationship, I would say relatively important.

Cannes is approaching.

a Festival I detest for its ridiculous pomposity. You can’t even cross the street. The first time I went there for Put, one evening for dinner. Twice in the last few years they didn’t want to let me in because according to them I wasn’t dressed as I should: I didn’t wear heels and I had a silk shirt judged not elegant by a mask. I was helped by Thierry Frmaux, the artistic director, he’s always very nice to me. I like the family atmosphere of the Berlinale and Venice, which for me is still a family affair, even if the past exists but you have to overcome it. At the Lido for Beautiful by day I organized three planes, on one Burton and Liz Taylor, then Vadim and Fonda and on the third all Italian cinema, Cardinale, Lollo, Mastroianni….

His life is a movie script.
The producer of Gone With the Wind, David O. Selznick, asked my mother if she could adopt me. My youth was an unrepeatable period.