Curator Luciano Calosso talks about the exhibition “4 Divas” during an opening ceremony held at the Korea Foundation Cultural Center in Seoul, Wednesday. / Korea Times photo by Kim Se-jeong

An exhibition of Italy’s film divas survived a debt crisis and subsequent belt tightening measures in public spending.

The Italian Cultural Institute in Seoul is presenting an exhibition called “4 Divas,” offering people a chance to enjoy the beauty of the nation’s four most successful film actresses.

Sophia Loren, Silvana Mangano, Claudia Cardinale and Gina Lollobrigida were internationally acclaimed Italian actresses in the 1950s and 1960s, receiving broad recognition at film festivals.

The exhibition consists of three different sections — film posters, costumes and photographs.

The film posters are original ones made five or six decades ago by professional painters. “In the 1950s and 60s, a poster was the
only window to a film, for that reason it was very important, and done by renowned painters,” Enrica Barbano, a curator from the Colosseum Cultural Association, told The Korea Times on Wednesday during the opening at the Korea Foundation Cultural Center in Seoul.

Four costumes on display are also the actual ones worn by the actresses in various movies in which they appear. An orange dress covered by a silver gown with a lavish crown belonged to Sophia Loren in her 1967 movie “Ghost Italian Style.”

Photos presented are on a lease from the CICCONI, Italy’s historical photo archive, which stores nearly 7 million photos from the late 19th century.

Renato di Porcia e Brugnera, deputy head of mission at the Italian Embassy in Seoul, said the success of each diva was a reminder of hard work, which also deserves recognition.

Italian cinema in the 1950s and 1960s was on the rise. Sophia Loren was a rising star, winning an Academy Award in 1961. She won best actress for her role in the film “Two Women” by Vittorio De Sica, making her the first actress to win an Academy Award for a performance in a foreign language film.

Along with the exhibition, Italian films are being screened. On Thursday, “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” by Vittorio de Sica with Sophia Loren will be screened. “Barbaras” by Richard Fleischer with Silvana Mangano will be played on Aug. 2.

For more information about the film screening and the exhibition, visit the website: www.kfcenter.or.kr.

skim@koreatimes.co.kr