“I’ll tell you about Helmut Berger, his excesses, his talent, his unpredictability…”- Corriere.it

«I’m surprised, we are on the same day, May 28, he was ten years younger than me», says Marina Cicogna with her usual charm. Death of a talented daredevil. Helmut Berger is gone.

Marina, were you friends?

«I loved him very, very well, I was particularly close to him on the set of Witches, episodic film. the following year I produced his second film, The young tigers, because Luchino Visconti was very fond of it. That film also marked the debut of Luca De Filippo as an actor».

When did you meet?
«I don’t get along with dates, I’d say late 60s. I met him because Visconti used to hang out with this little boy. Luchino’s friends, Enrico Medioli, Lorenzo Ripoli and others, were furious. There was that famous episode in Greece…».

Can you remember it?
«Helmut was trying on a lot of stuff in a clothing store, the saleswoman commented to Luchino, eh, you have to be patient with your children. But which father, Helmut snapped, this is an old fr… Italian».

And how did Luchino treat him?

«With a certain cruelty, but it was different, I also say it in my recently published autobiography, Still hoping. Luchino was already an established director, from a noble family, Helmut instead was a boy in search of fortune who until then had managed as best he could. The story of his amusing bluster made me want to know him.’

And then?

«Then we went to Ischia, to the house that Luchino was fixing up. Helmut was cute, lovable, nice, funny, talented.” But the excesses of him?
“They came later, she was the most self-destructive person I’ve ever met.”

When did it start to be?

«The situation worsened when he discovered that, apart from a house, he hadn’t had a lira from Luchino, who wrote one will after another».

It was often over the top.

“He was belligerent, aggressive, even dangerous. The last time I saw him he threw a crystal ashtray in my face. He made me sad.”

Alcohol or drugs?

“I’d say both.”

But when did his mentor die?

«I was with Helmut in Rio de Janeiro. March 17, 1976. he took the first plane to Rome, went to the funeral and the next day returned to Brazil, distraught, with no more horizons ahead of him. He was the widow, as she called herself at the time. He was not equipped to deal with pain ».

Was he a person of taste?

“I would say yes. He stole everything he could from Luchino’s house and took everything to his parents in Austria. A painting, various objects… He really liked drawings».

What were you talking about?

«About cinema and a bit of everything, but we didn’t have long conversations with him, he wasn’t particularly cultured. He spoke Italian with a strong German accent.’

Was he taken by Visconti?“But you know, Helmut didn’t give a damn about anyone, sentimentally.”

Was it fluid, as they say today?

“It was a time when he was marrying Marisa Bell, who was very into him. She jumped everything ».

Was he a good actor?

“Enough in my opinion.”

Last time you saw him?
“A chance encounter backstage at a Rolling Stones concert in Berlin.”

How do you want to remember it?

«He had a hidden desire for rebellion that he embodied without conditioning, I admired his absolute freedom, which sometimes bordered on rudeness, his unconscious challenge to respectability. He loved skiing, he opened the slopes even if he had slept for half an hour. In Cortina, in a disco, he and Florinda Bolkan were unbearable, they never wanted to leave the dance floor. There were no limits for him. When he lost his inhibitions it was impossible to be near him. It was a friendship marked by unpredictability».