Adriana Benetti

Adriana Benetti (12 December 1919) is an Italian actress. Born in Quacchio, an east-area of Ferrara, Adriana graduated at Istituto Magistrale (Masterly Institute) of her city, to landfall then in Rome, where she was accepted at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental film centre or Italian National film school). During the frequentation of her course she was found by Vittorio De Sica, making her debut at 22 years old in his film Teresa Venerdì (1941), as the main character.

She appeared in director Alessandro Blasetti's celebrated Quattro passi fra le nuvole (1942), where she supported Gino Cervi for the first time, and Luigi Zampa's C'è sempre un ma! (also 1942). She acted with Andrea Checchi and Aldo Fabrizi in 1942 Avanti c'è posto..., and with Massimo Serato and Vittorio Sanipoli in 1943 Mario Soldati's Quartieri alti. After Second World War, in 1945 she took part in two musicals, first as partner of Gino Bechi in Torna a Sorrento, then of opera singer Tito Gobbi in O sole mio. Later, she acted with Fosco Giachetti in 1946 Il sole di Montecassino, and with Eduardo and Titina De Filippo in 1946 Uno tra la folla.

She was also directed by Goffredo Alessandrini in 1947 Furia, where she acted with Rossano Brazzi and Cervi again; then she met again Fabrizi in Giorgio Ferroni's Tombolo, paradiso nero of the same year. In 1950 she acted with Totò in 47 morto che parla. In 1943 she also played in Marc Allégret's Les Petites du quai aux fleurs, with Bernard Blier and Gérard Philipe, in 1947 Lucio De Caro's (Manù il contrabbandiere), with André Cayatte, and in other Spanish and argentinian films. She was specialised in the ingénue roles (she became the "fidanzatina d'Italia" (Italy's little fiancée), a term coined for her by Assia Noris, who was labelled "fiancée").

In 1950s her cinematographic appearances progressively made less frequent, because of the weakening of the characteristics that distinguished her, playing also the teacher in 1955 Eighteen Year Olds (a remake of Schoolgirl Diary) and later the mature fiancée in A vent'anni è sempre festa (1957), after which she retired from cinema. Because of that specific eternal ingénue aura which distinguished her, in 1947 she scandalized Italy posing in a bikini for the weekly newspaper Tempo illustrato.

Filmography

Teresa Venerdì, directed by Vittorio De Sica (1941)
C'è sempre un ma!, directed by Luigi Zampa (1942)
Avanti c'è posto..., directed by Mario Bonnard (1942)
Quattro passi fra le nuvole, directed by Alessandro Blasetti (1942)
Gente dell'aria, directed by Esodo Pratelli (1942)
I quattro di Bir El Gobi, directed by Giuseppe Orioli (1942)
Quartieri alti, directed by Mario Soldati (1943)
Rondini in volo, directed by Luigi Capuano (1943)
Tempesta sul golfo, directed by Gennaro Righelli (1943)
O sole mio, directed by Giacomo Gentilomo (1945)
Il sole di Montecassino, directed by Giuseppe Maria Scotese (1945)
Torna a Sorrento, directed by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia (1945)
Inqueitudine, directed by Vittorio Carpignano and Emilio Cordero (1946)
Uno tra la folla, directed by Ennio Cerlesi (1946)
Furia, directed by Goffredo Alessandrini (1947)
Tombolo, paradiso nero, directed by Giorgio Ferroni (1947)
Manù il contrabbandiere, directed by Lucio De Caro (1947)
Llegada de noche, directed by J.A. Niever Condé (1949)
Neutralidad, directed by Eusebio Fernández Ardavín (1949)
47 morto che parla, directed by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia (1950)
La mujer de nadie, directed by Gonzalo Delgrás (1950)
Gli ultimi giorni di Pompei, directed by Marcel L'Herbier and Paolo Moffa (1950)
Donde comienzan los pantanos, directed by Antonio Ber Ciani (1952)
Las aguas bajan turbias (I desperados della jungla verde), directed by Hugo del Carril (1952)
Le due orfanelle, directed by Giacomo Gentilomo (1954)
Le diciottenni, directed by Mario Mattoli (1955)
A vent'anni è sempre festa, directed by Vittorio Duse (1957)