When, at the age of fifty-five, Isabella Ducrot, whose real name was Antonia Mosca, decided to become a visual artist, no one, not even Ducrot herself, ever dreamed that today, at ninety, she would be the darling of art galleries the world over. The film Tenga duro signorina! Isabella Ducrot Unlimited follows her activity for two years, both her achievements internationally and her private sphere. It’s more than a portrait of an artist who rose to the top despite being self-taught and an outsider; it’s an in-depth look at a woman who traversed the 20th century and ultimately revealed that “a happy life begins at sixty!” Wonderstruck by what she says and does, we believe her.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES:
When I started to film Isabella Ducrot over two years ago, I knew there was a certain urgency. Isabella is a great artist who only won international recognition for her work late in her life, but for me she was a role model as a woman as well. So I had no qualms about tackling the project without “having my back covered”– it was just me and my camera. The idea was to spend as much time at her side as possible, with the privilege, at times, of providing an invisible gaze, while at others I could serve as a companion and fellow traveler over our two amazing years together. If I think about Isabella’s first steps in art at age fifty-five, me being fifty-four now, I understand how laughable all my agonizing over success and failure was. We live at a time when being a woman trying to achieve in her field is more and more accepted; the last taboo is still old age. And here Isabella surprises us once again, as she shows us what it means to be an artist and a woman, but also that there is nothing to fear about our golden years. Bottom line: hang in there, ladies!