We live in a community of old fishermen. We’ve learned some things. Sophia Loren, we can declare without much doubt, is an old fisherman’s dream. Hairy armpits, safety pin holding her shirt closed, mismatched buttons, rope for a belt. All of that indicates an uncomplicated attitude, which old fishermen appreciate. And, most importantly, Loren apparently loves eels. This photo shows her holding aloft a tin of Comacchio canned eels, and before you judge, let us just say that eels taste great. We’ve never eaten the Italian variety, but we suspect one canned eel tastes very much like another. Please don’t send emails telling us how wrong we are and that eels vary greatly depending on which waters they slither through. They’re eels. How different can they really be?
Let’s focus on Loren. This is one of her most famous photos, and the reason she looks this way is because she’s in costume as her character Nives Mongolini from the 1954 film La donna del fiume, aka The River Girl, which was shot in Comacchio, a town famous for its tinned eels. The photo was made by Federico Patallani, and while we’ve heard it was used for an advertisement, we’ve never seen the ad, so we’re dubious on that. We think it’s just a film promo designed to call attention to the fact that Loren filmed in Italy’s most famous eel town. But even if it isn’t an ad, we bet it caused a spike in eel sales, and possibly caused bald-pitted women to consider ditching the razor. If you can make it look as good as Loren (or Eleonora Giorgi or Kuroki Kaoru) why not? We have another Loren image below from the same session, with her pits covered, for you hair haters.
