Benedetta Cimatti: “For Rachele Guidi, Mussolini’s wife, I tried anger, but now I cry even stronger my refusal for men who see us only as wives and mothers”

In the cinematographic narratives concerning the life of Benito Mussolini, there has always been a figure who has remained in the background, perhaps named in some jokes or resumed, for a few minutes, in some sequence: Rachele Guidi, his wife. In M – The son of the century, available on Sky and Now, by Joe Wright, on the other hand, becomes a key female figure, the one that is to be opposed to Margherita Sarfatti: a discharge, ignorant, completely dedicated to the care of the family, the other free, emancipated and cultured. But both crushed, used by the ambition and male chauvinism of the man who have next: Mussolini who has yet to become Duce. To interpret Donna Rachele, to give her strength and vigor when she tries to rebel against her husband’s abuses or to nod in silence defeat, there is Benedetta Cimatti who, with this role, found himself dealing with prejudice, anger and Finally, the penalty. Bringing it on stage, however, meant not to judge it, indeed striving to understand someone with whom an important piece of life was shared for a few months.

For the fascist regime, Rachele Guidi is the emblem of how a woman should be: angel of the hearth and subordinate in all of the man. How do you approach a similar figure?
«On tiptoe and striving to understand his fragility, difficulties and emotional nuances, from a woman to women. I had to leave aside the prejudice that I had not only in telling this historical period, a figure like that of Mussolini, but also that of a female figure of this type. It was a difficult, demanding job, during which I crossed several phases ».

Which?
“Before I anger because I said to myself” but how is it possible that a woman wanted to endure all this? “. Then there was a great penalty and, finally, a lot of sadness because we are talking about a victim of a man with pathological narcissism who has this constant need to feel recognized, desired and who considers women as something owned, of which to have at will. All his women are victims: he enchants them and then rejects them. And, by framing this behavior in a broader context, it comes to relegate them to a social position of inferiority, depriving them of political and institutional equality “.

The consequences of what the woman was seen at the time still come to the present day, despite all the achievements obtained in the following years.
«It is a chilling truth, but unfortunately it is so. We find ourselves dealing with an ambivalence that forces us to two roles: either you are a mother, wife, devoted to your family or – pass me the term – a whore. We still serve this type of vision, disparity, that we have to somehow be ancellar to man. He knows how many times in the interviews they tell me: “How do you feel to be the wife, the sister of, the friend of …?”. Here, always linked to some man ».

And how do you react?
«Trying a deep tiredness. The same that my friends who work in areas totally different from mine have, but live the same dynamics. Because it is true: we have conquered a lot in terms of social and political rights, but then you clash with the reality of certain men who continue to always have the same vision as the woman. It is something that makes me suffer a lot because those to whom it is up to change now are men: they are the ones who have to progress and go on ».

After this role, do you think she has matured some more awareness of these themes?
«Honestly, my refusal has grown even more towards this image of the woman only wife and mother. We must no longer make it go well, we must refuse certain situations, shout no. I believe that, in this sense, this role made me reborn: it arrived in a particular moment of my life which, however, made me earn a different, more aware sensitivity ».

What was going on?
«A mourning: my father had just passed away. Life can take you a lot, but if you have the strength to react, you can be able to discover new sides of you, vitality and resistance that you would never have imagined to own. It was very difficult, but at the same time it helped me a lot ».

Was his wanting actress tied to him?
«No, because this is a passion that I have nourished with perseverance and stubbornness, up to transforming it into a job, completely alone. As soon as I was able, in fact, I moved to Rome to be able to chase my dream. However, my passion for cinema is also linked to him: it was a surgeon, but since I was a child, he grew me up making me love movies ».

Do you ever miss the Romagna province from which it comes?
“No”.

Response that does not admit replicas.
“((laughs) I clarify better: I am very close to my land, I love to call myself “proudly Romagna”, I have the friends of a life there, my group with whom I love to carve out time, I always try to go back. However, the provincial life has always been very close to me: a context that I found suffocating for me, for my ambitions ».

So, Rome came …
«As a teenager, I gave a lot of files from my parents, precisely because I had this desire for evasion, of wanting to push me beyond my context. In Rome, I found my dimension: I am fine in this disorder, in this mess, in this confusion. I like to come across a thousand voices, faces … there is nothing to do, I love the big cities where nobody looks at me and where I am free to be who I want ».

So, conquered geographical stability, how does it go with the emotional one? Is there still that spirit that makes it so stubborn?
«Now, I’m much more serene. I made peace with myself when I understood that the desires need time, as a drawing says that I look at every day and that it gave me a dear friend of mine. I made peace with my parents, understanding their mistakes, but above all taking awareness of the difficulty of their role. When you understand that you want to be at peace with yourself, everything else comes accordingly ».

What do you hope for the future?
«I always have this calm that I managed to find after a long time. That this greeting inner silence allows me to continue to live well everything I do ».

Now, instead?
“For now, I want to enjoy this success a little.”