From cult Italian B-movies to television and film production

Edwige Fenech is a guest on the Saturday, November 2 episode of Dancing with the Stars. After the couple Fabio Caressa and Benedetta Parodi, it was the turn of the actress and film producer to test herself in dance. What is she doing today, who was once one of the sexy icons of Italian B-movie?

Edwige Fenech, who is she?

Edwige Fenech was born in Annaba (then Beaune), in what was then French Algeria, on December 24, 1948 (she is 76 years old). She is the daughter of Felix, of Maltese descent, and Yvonne, an Italian from Acate in the province of Ragusa, of which she later became an honorary citizen. After her parents’ divorce, she moved with her mother to Nice, France, where she attended high school and studied dance and medicine. There she was noticed while walking down the street and was invited to play a small role in Norbert Carbonneau’s film “Toutes folles de lui”. She worked for 11 years with director and producer Luciano Martino, then for 18 years with Luca Cordero di Montezemolo. She has a son named Edwin Fenech, born in 1971, whose paternity has become the subject of scandalous gossip. Fenech initially attributed the child’s paternity to actor Fabio Testi, with whom she had a three-year romantic relationship, saying that the son was the result of her own specific desire and that he was born when the relationship with Testi had already frayed. She later denied this paternity, not wanting to reveal the father’s identity. Since 2015, she has decided to live permanently in Lisbon, Portugal. She calls herself a Catholic.

The beginning of her career

In 1967, she won the Lady France beauty contest, which takes place in May during the Cannes Film Festival, and won the right to represent France at Lady Europe, where she came third. She was noticed by a talent scout who offered her to star in Italy in the film “Samoa, Queen of the Jungle” directed by Guido Malatesta. She starred in Aquila Nera for the same director before moving to Germany. She returned to Italy to film two films with Franco and Ciccio: Don Franco and Don Ciccio in Contest and Satiricosissimo (in which she played Empress Poppea). In the late sixties and early seventies, she starred in the then popular giallo films. She began a long collaboration, especially with director Sergio Martino, with titles such as “Lo strano vizio” della Signora Varde, which made her an icon of erotic giallo.

Success

In 1972, she starred in Mariano Laurenti’s Quel gran pezzo dell’Ubalda tutta nuda e tutta Calda, a film that became a cult classic in trash cinema, like its follow-up Giovannona Coscialunga disonorata con onore. She took on a leading role in the Italian sex comedy genre, which she maintained for ten years. The first films of this genre starring Edwige Fenech included Sergio Martino’s 40 degrees ombre del Lenzuolo with Tomas Milian and Poliziotta fa Career with Mario Carotenuto and Alvaro Vitali in 1976, until the last film in the series in 1981. In 1976, she appeared in the film “Praetora” directed by Lucio Fulci. She also appeared in numerous thrillers and horror films: in 1972 she starred in the film All in the Colors of the House with George Hilton and Ivan Rassimov, and in 1975 she starred in the film Naked for a Killer. Other films include the war film “The Great Assault” by Umberto Lenzi and the fantasy film “Dottor Jekyll and the Pagan” directed by Steno, co-directed by Paolo Villaggio.

Sexy icon

The male audience considers her a true sexual icon. Directors are aware of her voluptuous body and strong seductive appeal. Directors are not shy about showing this in every film. She posed nude several times for the Italian edition of the magazine. Playboy.

On television and theater

After the cinematic season, in the eighties, with the birth of the first private broadcasters, she participated in the releases of the programs “Ric e Gian folies”, broadcast in 1983 on Italia 1, “Bene, bravi, bis” (1984, with Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia), also broadcast on Italia 1 and a Telegatto winner, as well as the 1985 edition of “Risatissima”, a Saturday evening variety show broadcast on Canale 5, and also a Telegatto winner together with Lino Banfi and Paolo Villaggio. . She made her theater debut in 1985 in Giuseppe Patroni Griffi’s drama “D’amore si muore” with Massimo Wertmüller, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Monica Scattini. Subsequently, she hosted on Rai 1 “Sotto le stelle” (1986), “Immagina” (1987-88), “Carnevale” (1988), “Palcoscenico Italia” (1988), “Sulla cresta dell’onda”. (1989), “Un tesoro di capodanno” (December 31, 1990 on the Rai United Networks), but her recognition on television came with the 1989–90 edition of “Domenica in” under the direction of Gianni Boncompagni. She presented the Sanremo Festival in 1991 together with Andrea Occhipinti and later presented “Singoli” (1997), also on Rai 1.

What is she doing today

Since the nineties, she has been involved in television and film production through her company Imagine e Cinema. The first work produced was the television mini-series “Coraggio di Anna” in 1992. Films she has produced include 2004’s The Merchant of Venice. In 2007, she returned in front of the camera and was contacted by American director Quentin Tarantino. for a cameo role in the film Hostel: Part II, the sequel to the film Hostel, also directed by Eli Roth, recognized as a fan: in his Inglourious Basterds, the character played by Mike Myers is named “Ed Fenech” after the actress. . In 2012, she played the role of Catherine II in the television miniseries “La figlia del capitano”, which she also produced. In 2015, she starred in the feature film “È arrivata la felicità”, broadcast by Rai 1, starring alongside Claudio Santamaria and Claudia Pandolfi, which she also produced. In 2023, she returns to cinema as the main character directed by Pupi Avati in the film “La quattordicesima domenica del tempo ordinario”.