The meeting with Sophia Loren, the wig of Sandra Milo and the ghepardo by Claudia Cardinale: portrait of Enrico Lucherini

At 92 he died in Rome Enrico Lucherini, The inventor of the trade that was not there: the press agent. Lucherini, born in Rome in a bourgeois family who would have liked him a doctor, for the love of cinema was a brilliant liar And he loved to claim him: «The art of the lie is truly an art. I did my job “. So much so that “light“It entered the Treccani vocabularies as a synonym of author’s buffaloes, created for promotional purposes.”He passed away surrounded by the most expensive family members and affections“, Said Gianluca Pignatelli, his partner and friend, as reported by the press agency Adnkronos. Writes the film critic Maurizio Porro on Corriere della Sera: «He invented the news, the scoops, maybe the fake news that were called only hoaxes, He checked the promotion between the mythology of the nascent 50s and the desire of the public. His work was a dream-game realized, in those years in which our cinema and our actors were the best in the world ».

The origin of his finds must be sought in via Veneto, in Rome: “I realized that it was an easy world to explore, everyone came to us, there was no other place like this … I was there every day, I passed from one bar to another, once we suddenly heard a great bang. There had been an accident, two machines had buffered, we ran to see what had happened. On the rear seat there was Sylva Koscina, farts, upset, I approached, I asked her: “I call an ambulance?” And she immediately “Are you crazy? Call photographers“» As long as you talk about it It is the title of a book written by Lucherini in 2012).

The first “Lucherinata” in 1965: «Luchino Visconti Axiva The cherry garden of Chechov and wanted to stand out from Giorgio Strehler at any cost. I invented that he, absolute perfectionist, had made come Authentic cherries in bloom from Japan. They were papier -mâché but everyone drank it ». The collaboration with Visconti also continued in Leopard. The author of many finds who came out in the newspapers was Lucherini. For example the fact that Visconti had only wanted hundreds of wax candles For the scenography, which however melted with the heat of the projectors and therefore had to be changed every half hour: «False. I invented it, to make the newspapers speak. Only the candles in the foreground were true. The others were all electric ». As well The fresh flowers that came every day from Sanremo: «They were an invention, of course. Beautiful flowers were also found in Palermo ». For the promotion to Cannes, a cheetah: «Just in the city I realized that, next to the hotel there was a circus. I got a leopard, we made him a calming injection and the Cardinal caught on the beach, elegant and proud».

There are many stars that have lent themselves to his found. «I never did gossip, except for Florinda Bolkan. I had read that Liz Taylor was in the clinic, I had a photo of a photo four months earlier: Florinda danced with Richard BurtonTaylor’s husband. I said that Liz seeing that photo had an illness and was hospitalized. I invent to help movies».

The most important meeting, the one with Sophia Lorenwho remained his favorite for life: «The set of the Ciociara He was in Sora, close to Rome, and I made sure that he was approached by the local villages with their children: she hugged them, kissed them In the stage photos a mother had to appear, not a diva». For that film he thought the most famous “Lucherinata”, in Cannes on May 6, 1961: Carlo Ponti, producer of the film and husband of the actress, took on a hundred extras that had to be recessed out of the Palais of the Festival, on the Croisette, and simulate a piggy press to enter to celebrate the diva. The extras shouted: “Sophia, Sophia” and pushed until The Palais windows collapsed. The next day the newspapers around the world did not speak of anything else. But the breakdown of the glass had actually been caused by a blow settled from the inside by Luccherini himself.

Today perhaps certain finds would not be possible. Like when to launch Sandra Milo in Vanina Vaniniof Rossellini, made sure that the the wig on: “But to good!”: “Everyone was worried:” We don’t make a lira, with the film, nobody talks about it “. Then I thought about it. “This is the fire!”, I thought. The Milo had a huge wig on stage, and I thought: let it pass next to a candlestick, make sure that the wig takes fire and that Rossellini is saved. Result: Milo’s head takes fire, Laurent Terzieff, the actor, and Roberto Rossellini, the director, rush as firefighters. The Milo is almost “scrambled”, the threads holding the wig with real hair. But they appear Magnificent photos in all newspapers and all magazines. The film was launched“.
To launch Rosanna Schiaffino He made her walk through via Veneto with a fire red dress “equipped with one neckline on the back which, operated by an elastic, went down to the sacred bone. She secretly pulled the elastic and crazy photographers resumed that bendiddio that slowly discovered. The next day Rosanna was a star ». Another time the photos of Agostina Belli who in Live buried For script needs ended up in the water: the images of her soaked were combined with those of an ambulance and the news “He risked death”: “The magazines were full of my found.”
Once he confessed he was wrong: «In 1987 Gianni Hecht offers me A Australian in Romewith Massimo Ciavarro and a new actress, Nicole Kidman ». He doesn’t like it: “A broom with hair”. Instead: «I find her in 10 am: flat calm, what a career. Maybe I’m not a big press office ».
Liar for the love of cinema and always witty, with some doubts: «I have made fun of many people … maybe sometimes I exaggerated», He said once to Emilia Costantini on Corriere della Sera. But when he wondered if he ever had angry in his career, he replied: “I always remember beautiful things, the bad ones can’t come to mind”.