It's one of the most beautiful memories of my life. Not everyone has a chance to meet Greta Garbo! I was so in awe of her that I recently had my assistant search online for her film Queen Christina [1933]. I cherish that rare DVD like a precious keepsake now.

Giovanna Cau

Categorized in : Memories Beautiful Queens

I am a big fan of[Barak] Obama.I'd like to lie on the ground and have him walk over me.

Giovanna Cau

bigs fans lying

He[ Italo Calvino] always said it would be impossible to try to make films out of his books, though he hoped it would happen because that's where the money was.

Giovanna Cau

would-be trying book

We [ with Italo Calvino] had a great relationship. I don't think it's a coincidence that his only daughter's name is Giovanna. I loved his book dedications to me: "To Giovanna Cau, another book that won't be turned into a movie."

Giovanna Cau

daughter book thinking

It's my greatest success. Women did not vote in Italy until 1946. A good friend and I put together a group of women to protest this. I was very young, just a girl. We went to the Viminale [home of the Ministry of the Interior] and spoke to the chair of the ministry board. Thanks to our initiative, we got the bureaucracy rolling on giving women the right to vote. I have to thank my father for this. He was in Geneva at the League of Nations, and women voted there. He thought it was absurd that women didn't vote in his country yet.

Giovanna Cau

girl country father

I had a very full life, with pains and losses, of course. I lost all the people I was closest to: my partner, my father, and my best friends, but I can't complain. I am 91 years old and I am still here at my desk.

Giovanna Cau

pain loss father

Work is a great thing. This is something my father taught me. He didn't want me to grow up to be somebody's wife.

Giovanna Cau

growing-up wife father

My father was everything to me. Unlike my mother - I didn't have a special affinity with her.

Giovanna Cau

special mother father

Today's consumerism has changed things. I think children are much less creative now.

Giovanna Cau

creative children thinking

I didn't take care of the kids. I took care of the interior decoration of the house. I wanted to be an architect, so I curated that aspect of things. In the middle of the chaos, I moved things around and rearranged everything to find my order.

Giovanna Cau

house order kids

She [Monica Vitti] was a great actress, but a very difficult person. I am not in contact with her at the moment because she is very sick. Not a generous woman, I have to say. I don't see her much.

Giovanna Cau

actresses sick moments

I had fewer female clients. I don't know why. It was always the men who chose me. And the ones whose secrets I had to hold. I represented Sophia Loren. She was jailed in Caserta for 17 days.

Giovanna Cau

female secret men

Everything has changed now. The world has changed. It surprises me to be on the forefront. I've lost all dignity! I give interviews! I make movies! I'm amazed at myself.

Giovanna Cau

interviews giving world

I was born in Rome on March 11, 1923. Because of my age, I've become a piece of this country's history, but it's also true that a certain strand of Italy's film history has passed though me.

Giovanna Cau

film-history rome country

I surely haven't only dealt with film people. As a lawyer, I also fought against evictions, or worked on leases - the unglamorous side of the business.

Giovanna Cau

lawyer sides people

There were a lot of contradictions between Marcello's[ Mastroianni] public persona and who he was in private.

Giovanna Cau

persona contradiction facts

I'd never seen Marcello [Mastroianni] truly in love with a woman. I called him "the man who couldn't love." He was capable of enormous amounts of affection. He respected the women who were close to him, but never once fell in love.

Giovanna Cau

affection he-man men

I hated being photographed and never wanted to go on red carpets, even though they always asked me to. My place was behind the scenes. I wasn't a diva. I preferred to look at life from the outside.

Giovanna Cau

behind-the-scenes red goes-on

I've never been in love with Marcello [Mastroianni]. I wasn't even attracted to him physically. I admired him. I followed him and supported him, but nothing ever clicked.

Giovanna Cau

been-in-love

I never uttered a word about things, but with my age now, I've completely lost all reservations. In more ways than one. I was never in front of the camera, for example, but now I've been in films and documentaries.

Giovanna Cau

documentaries age way

Always care for the writing part first. Every good film project starts with good writing. If you have a good script, everything else follows. Writing is crucial.

Giovanna Cau

scripts writing firsts