Actress explores mystique of composer’s life as character
did
Rossellini enthuses over latest role as Beethoven’s love
By Lael Loewenstein
Daily Bruin Staff
One look at Isabella Rossellini and it’s easy to guess why she
was picked to play a Hungarian countess in the film, Immortal
Beloved. Regal, serene and undeniably beautiful, Rossellini was the
perfect choice to play Countess Anna Maria Erdody, one of
Beethoven’s great loves.
With her latest film, Rossellini continues to forge her own
professional reputation. Previously known as the daughter of Ingrid
Bergman and Roberto Rossellini -cinema’s closest thing to royalty,
Rossellini later gained notoriety as the Lancome face, the wife of
Martin Scorcese, and the girlfriend of David Lynch. Although she is
now involved with another famous actor, Gary Oldman, that
relationship has not obscured her identity, just as her counterpart
Erdody maintains her independence.
"She was a very influential lady, a great patron of the arts,"
says Rossellini of Erdody. "And she was a very important person in
Beethoven’s life."
Erdody was, in fact, one of the first people to perceive
Beethoven’s deafness. They met at a performance of the Emperor
Concerto in Vienna when his erratic conducting revealed his
disability to an unsympathetic audience and Erdody strode up to the
stage to rescue the maestro from public humiliation.
As portrayed in the film, that first encounter between Erdody
and Beethoven (Oldman) carries an ironic resonance: It was during
the making of Immortal Beloved that Rossellini and Oldman met and
fell in love. Now, as he undergoes treatment for alcoholism, she
speaks for him at an interview he is unable to attend.
"Gary is well, he is better now than he was a few weeks ago,"
she says firmly.
Oldman’s problems with alcohol stem not from any personal or
professional conflict, she adds. "It is a hereditary disease that
he has wanted to deal with. He’s been working very hard for a long
time and he was exhausted. At a certain point he had to take some
time for himself."
Rossellini is quick to dispel rumors that Oldman is the dark and
brooding type. In fact, she found him to be quite the opposite.
"Gary is very warm, funny, and delicate," she says fondly. "And I
think he’s terribly shy."
Her desire to work with Oldman, whom she had known only through
his films, was one of the things that drew her to Immortal Beloved.
In addition, she found writer-director Bernard Rose’s longtime
passion for the project inspiring and infectious.
"I learned so much about Beethoven working on the film," she
says. "The controversies around his music, his character, his
disease."
Rossellini’s turn as Countess Erdody is merely the latest in a
series of diverse roles in notable films. In the past decade, she
has played the tormented singer in Blue Velvet, the sympathetic
wife in Fearless, and the bewitching sorceress in Death Becomes
Her. Carving out an acting career was not easy, however.
"I have two handicaps, really," she says. "I am a model, and
many people look down on models who want to act. And I have an
accent. There are not so many roles for women with accents."
Her accent blends the rich Italian tones of her father with the
warm Swedish inflections that uncannily recall her mother.
Did she find it a handicap to be the child of a famed director
and much-admired actress? "No, not at all," she responds. "It was
an advantage, really. Not in a nepotistic way but because I was
familiar with the milieu, with filmmaking. I learned to love films
at a young age."
Still, her mother’s legendary reputation proved sufficiently
daunting that Rossellini didn’t begin her acting career in earnest
until after her mother’s death in 1982. Instead, she became a
successful model.
Having worked as Lancome’s spokeswoman for the past 12 years,
Rossellini recently found herself in the midst of a public
controversy when the cosmetics company elected not to renew her
contract. The press speculated that the firm let her go because she
was over 40, although at 42, Rossellini could pass for a woman a
dozen years younger.
"There was great debate within Lancome about whether this was
the right decision," she says without bitterness. "The sales didn’t
go down because I was in my 40s, in fact it gave the company more
credibility. But in Lancome’s defense, I have to say that if you
look at the fashion magazines, none of them use models over 28. So
ultimately this tradition of working with somebody younger took
over. It’s unfortunate, but that’s the way it is."
Although her work with Lancome will end this year, the future is
bright for Rossellini. Not only will she continue to act, but she
and Oldman are unofficially engaged. However, the ring she wears on
her left hand, a gift from him, would suggest more.
"Gary and I are in love, we are together, we are aiming at
getting married," she explains. "The other day a journalist asked
me, ‘Are you going to be a May bride?’ And I thought, at 42, with
two kids and two divorces, what a funny question to ask ."
Rossellini laughs warmly. "But who knows?"