Anita without Federico. Ekberg’s body, voice and persona in the Italian media landscape (1958–1964

In Italy, Anita Ekberg left many traces and generated an extensive variety of discourses. To begin an investigation of Ekberg's impact on the Italian cultural and media landscape, the essay focuses on the period from 1958 (her first appearance in a film directed by an Italian director) to 1965 (the year of the publication of her interview with Italian poet Salvatore Quasimodo). This time frame coincides with the so-called “economic boom”, which led Italy to a massive cultural transformation. In this transitional period, Ekberg played a crucial but controversial role: going beyond Fellini's films and imagery, and analysing the magazines and media, it is possible to see the seductive and sensual Ekberg become an eccentric, almost alien figure, who did not quite fit - as a woman, as an actress - in any of the categories available in the Italy of the time. On the one hand, the Italian media exploited her; on the other, they weren’t quite ready to accept her "layered excess": her body, her height, her platinum hair, her accent, her mercurial temperament. Italy loved Ekberg, but probably not as much as Ekberg loved Italy.