I fell in love with Japan last summer, while I was shooting a film in Tokyo and maybe this love is mutual because, for a delightful coincidence, you have invited me to come back so soon, in these very days, in your lovely autumn to chair this wonderful Film Festival so involved to make our culture closer. This year you celebrate Luchino Visconti, one of the greatest director of the 20th century, who was able to excel as nobody else did in movies, theatre and opera.

He was the one who guided me from the beginning of my career and such a privilege has conditioned my history as an actress. I am honoured to have the chance to remember him with you and I wish to the Osaka European Film Festival that throughout the past years stood out in the international scene as one of the most prestigious Festival in the Far East, a long and luminous life.