The Party Film Sales Picks Up World Rights for Bellucci-Ekberg Doc ‘The Girl in the Fountain’

variety.com:

Lise Pedersen Paris-based international sales company The Party Film Sales has nabbed the rights for Antongiulio Panizzi’s hybrid documentary “The Girl in the Fountain,” a double portrait of icons Anita Ekberg and Monica Bellucci, which opened at the Torino Film Festival last November.The story of an actress devoured by her own icon, the film alternates between archive footage of Ekberg and reenacted scenes by Bellucci, who retraces Ekberg’s weaknesses and choices, inviting the viewer to reflect on what it is like to be an icon, providing a fresh look at femininity, fame and media exposure.The famous scene in Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita,” in which Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg take a midnight dip in the Trevi Fountain, hides a much more chaotic life – that of an actress consumed by her own iconic image, says Panizzi.

Speaking to Variety ahead of the Torino premiere, Panizzi said that the iconic scene turned out to be a burden for the actress, who got to experience what Rita Hayworth meant when she said that “they go to bed with Gilda; they wake up with me.”It was the director’s wish to have Bellucci tell the Swedish icon’s story, as he believed she would be the perfect match.

But, he told Variety, “Monica is in charge of her life, working on many films and generally at a great place in her career. Maybe the perception of women was different at that time?

Either way, Anita was stuck in that fountain,” he said.The Italian icon dyed her hair blonde for the role and surprised Panizzi on the last day of shooting with a letter she had written to Ekberg, an extract of which is used in the film.“Anita Ekberg had such a powerful image that it overshadowed the woman and the actress, allowing only the myth to shine..