Like two queens, deep in conversation
Although I haven't seen her for ages, when I sight Regina, languid yet crisp against the doorway of the trendy SoHo bistro we've arranged to meet, her greeting dissolves the intervening years. She's always been beautiful in the arresting sense: dark locks and penetrating dark eyes, and mouth prone to pouts and laughter in equal measure. Like a changing sky, her face reflects her incisive intelligence, earnest listening and ready bullshit detector.
Her embrace dispenses with the silliness of small talk and we plunge right into a juicy discussion about Life's Big Questions, the important things, like Art and Truth and Essence and Integrity. And always staying young and fresh and vibrant. Regina's presence creates the kind of space where it's easy to use big words, because like effective code, they compress hard-won wisdom into simple units of meaning. Regina, of course, orders something that's off the menu in this fabulous place I'd been told we just had to eat: a pot of steaming milk. Rolling her eyes at the waitress who seems shocked at this excess –what with all the gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan sustainable what-have-you du jour. She inspires me to ask for what I really want, and then, like two queens, we settle into the window seat and spend the rest of our time together deep in conversation. Despite knowing Regina for so long, I only now learn that she grew up at La Scala Opera House, literally shaped by strict discipline and a passion to give form to beauty. Though to me she's always been the quintessential Italian - smoky and gorgeous and full of bravura - this explains her magnetic authority of movement and a depth of uncompromising commitment to the kind of truth that uplifts. These are the roots that shape the practical art she now creates and offers. To spend time with Regina and the things she makes is to be liberated from the trite. It's sanity-making, a blessed respite from the shiny surfaces of conventional social discourse: the same movies, the same opinions, the same clothes. The bone-crushing weight of banality that threatens everything honest and vulnerable and joyfully fresh and alive. Because this is the kind of performance that Regina delivers, the kind of projects she gets involved with: fabulous and fun. She expresses her deepest and most human qualities through her characters, issuing an invitation that we, the audience, consider sharing ourselves in the same way too. Free. Comfortable and blessedly fluid, the authenticity of her work challenges one into the presence of the essential. And in commanding that space, the gift of seeing oneself and the other.
Regina Nemni has inspired and given life to "Summer Babes", a film by Marzia Ciacci that was specifically made for festival circuit to raise awareness on the psychological implications of violence on women. Oscar winning editor Gabriella Cristiani (The Last Emperor) oversaw the editing. Tony Adler (American Beauty) produced. Her next fascinating project: is a documentary on the life of Italian ballerina Alessandra Ferri, seen from the very personal standpoint of her life long friend: Nemni.
