Some of Me [Hardcover]

Isabella Rossellini (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 1997

She writes of her mother, Ingrid Bergman: "Second to acting, Mother loved cleaning, which is not to say she loved even that above me. I'm sure she loved me more than cleaning, but what made her happiest was combining the two."

She writes of her father, Roberto Rossellini: "My father was a Jewish mother ... When we were children (there were seven of us) one of our favorite games was throwing ourselves into Daddy's body. Lying on his side, he pretended to be the sow and we were the piglets."

She writes about her famous nude scene in David Lynch's Blue Velvet, and of posing for such world-renowned photographers as Richard Avedon, Bruce Weber, and Steven Meisel. About being fired as the face of Lancome because she dared to become forty, and about the two years of scoliosis that blighted her adolescence. She talks -- candidly but discreetly -- about the men in her life: her ex-husband Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, and Gary Oldman. And she conducts intimate and extended dialogues with her beloved dead parents.

This book is utterly original, human, and provocative. Like the author herself.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Some of Me is full of magic realism, moral elegance, and monstres sacrés. Though Isabella Rossellini deliberately chooses to reveal only bits of herself in her anecdotal new memoir, what amazing aspects they are. The photos tell part of the story: alongside Vogue covers and sumptuous magazine spreads, there are odder images--Ingrid Bergman in a balaclava; Rossellini sprawled on a chair with her potbellied pig and dog sprawled on her, all three looking equally pensive.

But, oh, the prose! More provocative than ten tell-alls stacked together, Some of Me is an analyst's treasure trove and a reader's delight. There is something for everyone. Those interested in Rossellini's rise and fall as the Lancôme model will find indignant if good-humored fodder--she warns some to skip ahead "if you can't stand boring." But even those of us who wish we didn't know all those supermodels' names will find this section intriguing. Rossellini also provides some intriguing insights into her often bizarre film roles. There are, though, more bravura sections in this memoir. Who knew that Rossellini still communes with her dead parents? The author prints some of their debates verbatim, though she has already warned: "It's a habit of mine to embellish and color events until I lose sight of what really happened." Rossellini also takes on more upsetting memories such as the painful treatment she underwent for scoliosis and the thoughtless questions people ask about her adopted child. At one point, she remarks, "True elegance is for me the manifestation of an independent mind." Some of Me is a truly elegant manifestation.

From Library Journal

Rossellini is a personality in every sense. As the daughter of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini, she was famous by default even before she forged her own career by design, most noticeably as Lancome's cover girl. In this lisless work, she ruminates on such diverse, rather banal subjects as aging, pets, her mother's hand-me-down fur coat, and the sex lives of garden insects. Her recollections of her family and of influential people around her are occasionally moving, and the sensitivity with which she created her roles in the films Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart makes for an interesting aside. Rossellini's insight into the fashion industry is trenchant: advertising campaigns are shown to be the ultimate postmodern compliment to legendary women. Belied throughout is the author's truly cosmopolitan upbringing in Paris, Rome, and New York. More of a musing than a memoir, this slim volume is candid and intimate but not terribly profound. Of interest to those fascinated by the cult of personality.
-?Jayne Plymale, Univ. of Georgia Libs., Athens
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 179 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (June 2, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679452524
• ISBN-13: 978-0679452522
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #446,227 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Is Being Remembered a Kind of Antidote to Death?", August 20, 2002

By 

Omnibus (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Some of Me (Hardcover)

I don't usually run up and get a book autographed by the author. But person at the luncheon was mesmerizing. I sat there and thought about her mother Ingrid Bergman, her trials and tribulations, her remarkable beauty, her astonishing talent, and her warmth and genuineness. It was a wonderful and heartwarming 2 hours. I think everyone felt they had met a friend. The book? It covers the waterfront, written in crisp, clear, engaging style. Honest, memorable, including her unforgettable encounters with Anna Magnani, Katharine Hepburn, Martin Scorsese (ex-husband), Gary Oldman. Film, modeling, Television, businesswoman, human being. "Is being remembered a kind of antidote to death? Is fame a sor of eternity? A remedy to the sadness of the end? Does having a famous mother, whoisstill seen every day on TV smiling, crying, walking, talkin, maker her death different, less definitive than other deaths?" This book will last!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A delight to read, to treasure and savor..., November 26, 1999

By 

Miguel "Writer, Journalist, Film Critic" (Gijon, Spain) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Some of Me (Hardcover)

Going through the pages of this book, one gets to know several of the aspects of Isabella Rossellini's life in a candid way, yet she is only revealing what she intends to and not a single fact more... thus, she shares and keeps and does it in a wonderful way.

After reading it feels as if one has had a long, warm, affectionate conversation with her, feeling that, perhaps even if for the duration of the reading, she is a dear, most valued friend.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Savoir Faire, June 30, 2000

By 

Melissa Hardie "mjh1963" (Potts Point, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Some of Me (Hardcover)

Who could resist a book that connects lounging around in bed all day with "spiritual and intellectual wisdom"? Isabella Rossellini's Some of Me is a perfectly wonderful memoir of, well, some of her memories, experiences, interests, and lies. Rossellini assures the reader at the beginning of the book that she lies, and it's a disarming admission which sits interestingly with the candid and transparent prose style she has mastered. Rossellini's memoir details her relationship with her parents, Scorcese, Lynch, and her children, as well as her private passions and interests. For all her discretion, the narrative feels candid, and humorously ironic in a manner that is disarmingly personal because it feels so intimately addressed to the reader.

Rossellini tells of her conversations with "ghosts," a way of tying herself to her past that tweaks the conceit of the lie to provide a quite poignant meditation on loss when it is gracefully and passionately accepted. Her wrangle with Lancome over their decision that she was too old to represent them deals with loss in a more vigorously defiant way, and yet with a certain savoir-faire: Rossellini warns us that this section will be boring, her way of distancing herself from her own disappointment, perhaps, but also something of a lie.

But what's so intriguing about this book is the way in which Rossellini relies on memory's imprecision to move from topic to topic. From a discussion of her mother's advice that to live a happy life one requires "good health and a short memory," Rossellini moves to her forgetfulness, her mother's obsession with cleaning and to her own feelings about various cleaning implements, and then to the manifestation of her philosophy of living provided in the arrangements of objects in her home. These associative and nostalgic rambles are often poignant, and seldom lose a sense of coherence. Rather, they show how artless really excellent and thoughtful prose may seem.

And then there are the pictures: again, an artless miscellany that offers everything from hand-drawn cleaning instruments to objets trouves, art objects given to her by Lynch and others, and a collection of personal snaps as well as fashion photographs. Rossellini loves things for their simplicity, beauty, and richness. If you do too, enjoy this book.