A force in the movie business since her bravura lead role in David Lynch’s “Blue Velvet” in 1986, Isabella Rossellini earned her first Oscar nomination Thursday for her supporting role as a Vatican nun in “Conclave.”
Shortly after the nomination announcement, Rossellini released a video in which she paid tribute to her parents, Ingrid Bergman and Robert Rossellini, as well as her former creative and romantic partner, Lynch, who died a week ago.
“I’m deliberately sitting next to this poster,” Rossellini says in the video. “My father’s film ‘Europe ’51’ with my mother, Ingrid Bergman. I think about them so much, especially today, after being nominated for an Oscar for the movie “Conclave.” I wish they were here to know this news, but they might know, because they might be up there and know.”
She added: “And up there I’m sure David Lynch is too. My association with him was so crucial to my understanding of the art of acting.”
The nomination places Rossellini in the Academy’s history books. She is the daughter of three-time Oscar-winning actress Ingrid Bergman. Her father, Italian neorealist film legend Roberto Rossellini (“Rome, Open City,” “Journey to Italy”) was also nominated once, in 1950 for his screenplay for “Paisan.”
Swedish acting legend Bergman is often cited as one of the greatest film icons of all time, known for his roles in “Casablanca,” “The Bells of St. Marys” and Alfred Hitchcock’s “Notorious.” She was nominated seven times and won three Oscars: two for Best Actress (“Gaslight” and “Anastasia”) and one for Best Supporting Actress (“Murder on the Orient Express”).
Rossellini’s nomination this year actually comes on the 50th anniversary of her mother’s win for “Orient Express,” an all-star mystery film in which Bergman played a shy missionary suspected of murder.
The romance between Bergman and Roberto Rossellini was an international scandal when the couple married in 1950 because Bergman had just divorced her first husband Petter Aron Lindström. She was condemned for adultery, including on the floor of the US Senate. Isabella and her twin sister Ingrid were born in Rome in 1952. Bergman and Rossellini divorced five years later.
Now 72, Rossellini has outlived both his father, who died at 71 in 1977, and his mother, who died on her 67th birthday in 1982.
Other mother-daughter Oscar nominees for acting include Liza Minnelli and her mother Judy Garland; Laura Dern and her mother Diane Ladd; Kate Hudson and her mother Goldie Hawn; and Jamie Lee Curtis and her mother Janet Leigh.
A former model who moved into acting in the 1980s, Rossellini has mostly concentrated on work in the independent film world (including seven films with avant-garde Canadian director Guy Maddin), with the occasional major studio prize like “Death Becomes Her”.
Her other credits include “Fearless” (as Jeff Bridges’ wife), “Two Lovers” (as Joaquin Phoenix’s mother), “Wild at Heart”, “Immortal Beloved” and “Big Night”. On TV, she appeared in “Julia,” “30 Rock” (as Alec Baldwin’s ex-wife) and “Green Porno,” a series of short films she directed about the mating habits of animals and insects. In 1997, she received an Emmy nomination for guest actress in a drama series for “Chicago Hope.”
As it turns out, Rossellini is not alone this year in mother-daughter history-making. Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”) was nominated 26 years after her mother, Fernanda Montenegro (1998’s “Central Station”). Montengero even has a small role in “I’m Still Here” as the older version of Torres’ character in a late scene.
