https://evelynfloris.substack.com/
I commemorate the day Renato and I met sixteen years ago today with a new Substack post (link above) and by sharing the Foreword he wrote which he included in his book titled, "The Rudolph Valentino Case Files".
Renato writes:
"For most of my life I had a limited knowledge of Valentino, like most Italians it was a minimal awareness. For me Valentino was an emigrant expelled from a ruthless homeland which offered him no means of survival. I believed like most other people that his success was due to the terrible sufferings he endured, his great dignity and a stubborn will. Most Italians, including myself know something about how Valentino became one of the most loved and acclaimed, yet envied movie stars in Hollywood history.
I first entered the world of Rodolfo Valentino, in 1997, on the occasion of the filming of a documentary about him titled, “El Squardo di Valentino”. While shooting various scenes and interviews for this documentary, I realized there was not just one Valentino, but many. Everyone had clear and individual ideas about their "own "Valentino.
Valentino left my life only to return twelve years later on the occasion of a conference organized in his honor by the University of Turin. It was then I had the opportunity to reunite with a friend I met while filming the documentary, Michael Morris, the author of Madam Valentino. Michael was one of the few people who had not created his “own” Valentino and was a serious researcher supported by an adamant intellectual honesty.
At the Valentino conference in Turin, Michael Morris introduced me to his friend, Evelyn Zumaya, a researcher conducting difficult and complex investigations into the life of the star. A formidable harmony immediately took off between Evelyn and myself. Perhaps guided by the spirit of Rodolfo, we began to collaborate to try to understand who Rodolfo Guglielmi really was and how he became Rudolph Valentino.
Another twelve years have passed since that evening with Michael Morris in Turin. Evelyn and I are still hard at work separating the wheat from the chaff, the good from the bad and above all, the true from the false. We entered a labyrinth of research together, a challenging operation with countless obstacles to overcome and pitfalls to avoid.
Our work on Valentino has at times reminded me of carnival fairgrounds, houses haunted by evil spirits, halls of mirrors arranged to confuse and deceive. But we, being obstinate, want just to discover the truth, solve the mysteries and share it all. Leaving the carnival haunted houses behind, we emerge from the gloomy darkness, with this book. It is a sort of library or “biblios”, containing many individual books sharing our Valentino research and discoveries. This Valentino Bible is the result of our years of discussion, debate, changes of opinion, research and investigation. Yet, the question remains... what will happen during the next twelve years?
Enjoy,
Renato Floris
Turin 2021"
