Valentina Cervi

Valentina Cervi

Valentina Cervi (born 13 April 1976) is an Italian film and television actress. Cervi was born in Rome, Italy. She is the daughter of director Tonino Cervi and granddaughter of the famous Italian actor Gino Cervi. Cervi started her acting career at age ten in Carlo Cotti's 1986 film Portami la luna. She also played an English-language role in Jane Campion's 1996 The Portrait of a Lady. One of her most acclaimed roles was the lead in the 1997 film Artemisia, directed by Agnès Merlet. It was loosely based on the painter Artemisia Gentileschi's life, but controversially portrayed the relationship between Agostino Tassi (played by Miki Manojlović) and Artemisia as a passionate affair rather than as rape. In 2011, she appeared as Arianna in BBC TV's Italian detective mini-series Zen. The Times said: "Zen (Rufus Sewell) need only walk into a Lavazzatore for [a] B-movie-rank Gina Lollo to press her amples into his chest. An interview with one courtesan [Cervi] was conducted ... with her in bra and fishnets, the interrogation interrupted by the command 'zip' as he dressed and undressed her". She also appeared as "Valentina" in Canale 5's series Distretto di Polizia in 2011.

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