«Sophia is there. She is going to help you»

Abstract

«What would Sophia Loren do?» is a question that Nancy Kulik, daughter of Italian immigrants, asked herself many times in her life. Even at a young age, Loren has served her not only as a compass for important choices, but also to create an emotional connection with her Italian heritage. Through its personal approach, the documentary «What would Sophia Loren do?» makes us understand how Kulik is thus representative of a nostalgic migrant’s view of the Italian-American diaspora. This short cinematic homage gives the opportunity to reflect on Sophia Loren’s cult of the star from the perspective of the “transatlantic-gaze” (Carolan McDonald, 2014), gender and time-image (Deleuze, 1991), and not least, “italianità” and “americanità” against the backdrop of the Italian-American migration experience.