Anyone who has followed Rossellini's colorful and varied career knows that she insists on total independence and revels in contradictions, traits she flaunts saucily in this indulgent yet intriguing self-portrait. It may come as a surprise to learn that Rossellini--Lancome's exclusive model for 14 years, a wildly successful cover girl (300 magazines in all, including 28 coveted Vogue covers), a movie star (18 films)--has had to fight to assert her identity, but that struggle is, curiously enough, the dominant theme of this generously illustrated volume (a veritable family scrapbook). Not only was Rossellini nearly overwhelmed by the fame of her parents, the incomparable Ingrid Bergman and celebrated director Roberto Rossellini, she also had to compete with her twin, Ingrid. As she skips through her family history, she has very little to say about her twin, a professor of medieval literature; quite a bit to share about her pragmatic mother who loved acting above all else; and a great deal to relate about her father, perhaps the most important force in her life. He was the first of her "trinity" of directors. She married Martin Scorsese, the second, and had her heart broken by the third, David Lynch, who of course, directed Blue Velvet, the movie that blasted her bland pretty-woman persona and almost cost her her lucrative Lancome account (which ended after many skirmishes: they insist she's too old; she's 45). A mother now, and at a crossroads in her career, Rossellini is open to all that life has to offer, ready to go beyond the cover of mere glamour. Fans of Rossellini and her family will enjoy this rather bravura performance. Donna Seaman
From Kirkus Reviews
A collage of autobiographical recollections by the model and actress, featuring wry insights on her professions (for her first Vogue cover, in 1982, she was paid $150; there are some fascinating glimpses of her work with the director David Lynch, ``the Jimmy Stewart from Mars''), reflections on her famous parents (the director Roberto Rossellini, who conducted much of his life from his bed, even keeping a film-editing table next to it, and the actress Ingrid Bergman, who ``loved acting most and above all''), droll, chatty passages on everything from bras to the true meaning of glamour, and frank descriptions of such matters as the therapeutic uses of lying and her idiosyncratic habit of holding discussions with her ``ghosts'' (principally, her mother and father) at particularly stressful moments. The relaxed, breezy, straightforward tone of these brief pieces is startlingly effective: It's rather like spending a long evening listening to a hectic, disarmingly honest (and charmingly ironic) stream-of- consciousness monologue. (photos, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
... a fascinating, coy, amusing, revealing, loose-screw collection of riffs about her life. -- Entertainment Weekly, Lisa Schwarzbaum
The best way to approach Some of Me is as a letter from a celebrity friend who somehow suspects it is her celebrity that keeps people interested, so she gives a taste but resents it all the same. And because she is so charming, you indulge her and hope selfishly for more. -- The New York Times Book Review, Amy M. Spindler
From the Publisher
"... those who enjoy something that reads like the after-dinner talk of a beautiful and worldly celebrity will find much that is entertaining ..."
-- Publishers Weekly"Fans of Rossellini and her family will enjoy this bravura performance"
-- Booklist
From the Inside Flap
f her mother, Ingrid Bergman: "Second to acting, Mother loved cleaning, which is not to say she loved even that above me. I'm sure she loved me more than cleaning, but what made her happiest was combining the two."
She writes of her father, Roberto Rossellini: "My father was a Jewish mother ... When we were children (there were seven of us) one of our favorite games was throwing ourselves into Daddy's body. Lying on his side, he pretended to be the sow and we were the piglets."
She writes about her famous nude scene in David Lynch's Blue Velvet, and of posing for such world-renowned photographers as Richard Avedon, Bruce Weber, and Steven Meisel. About being fired as the face of Lancome because she dared to become forty, and about the two years of scoliosis that blighted her adolescence. She talks -- candidly but discreetly -- about the men in her life: her ex-husband Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, and Gary Oldman. And she conducts intimate and
About the Author
Isabella Rossellini grew up in Paris and Rome. She moved to New York at the age of nineteen, and began her modeling career at twenty-eight, when she was photographed by Bruce Weber for British Vogue. She has appeared in eighteen films, including Blue Velvet, Cousins, Wild at Heart, Fearless, Immortal Beloved, and, most recently, Big Night -- as well as several made-for-TV movies. After being the exclusive model for Lancome for fourteen years, Rossellini is now working to develop a new line of make-up, skin-care, and fragrance with the Lancaster Group. She lives in New York City with her two children.
