Beba Lončar

The White Vespa Phenomenon

Desanka Lončar wasn't looking for fame when she climbed onto that motorbike on the streets of Belgrade. It was 1960, and the premiere of Ljubav i moda turned a seventeen-year-old girl into the first major export of Yugoslav cinema. Audiences were captivated by a style that was no less polished than Hollywood productions, yet had an unmistakable Balkan flavor.

And the gamble paid off.

That film was a breath of modernity in a society that was beginning to look toward the West with curiosity. Beba, as everyone started calling her, projected an image of pure freshness that crossed the borders of the socialist bloc. Italian producers were quick to see the commercial potential of a blonde who spoke several languages and moved with a naturalness unusual for her age.

Her leap into Western Europe, however, was no bed of roses. She had to contend with the prejudices of an industry that saw in her only a pretty face to fill shots in light comedies. In 1964 she shot The Woman of a Thousand Faces, and the international market finally surrendered at her feet.

Landing in Cinecittà

Rome became her base of operations for nearly two decades. Italian cinema in the sixties and seventies devoured foreign actresses at a frantic pace, and Lončar managed her physical capital with financial savvy. She appeared in Casanova 70 alongside Marcello Mastroianni and proved she could hold her own against the giants of European acting.

Her presence on set was magnetic.

She worked under Mario Monicelli in L'armata Brancaleone in 1966. That role of Princess Alcestina allowed her to move away from the stereotype of the modern urban woman and explore more classic registers. Despite the pressure from studios, she always tried to choose projects with a minimum of narrative rigor.

Her name began to appear regularly in French and German co-productions. In 1970 she took part in Close to the Stars, and her fee reached figures that placed her among the elite of actresses living in Italy. She earned more than 50 million lire for some of her advertising contracts from that period.

A Timely Exit

The 1970s brought a flood of minor genres such as the poliziottesco and the Italian sex comedy. Lončar appeared in titles like La ragazza del mambo, but she began to feel a deep weariness with the star system. The industry was changing, and interesting roles for women over thirty were becoming alarmingly scarce.

She decided she didn't want to watch her career wither away in soulless supporting roles.

In 1982 she shot her last feature film, Il vizeo di familia. It was a quiet ending to a career that had lasted just over twenty years but was extremely intense in terms of production. After filming, she packed up her belongings and stepped away from the spotlight for good to focus on her private life and raising her son Leo.

She returned to Belgrade after her divorce from Josip Radeljak in the nineties. She settled in the Dorćol neighborhood, close to where it all began, and consistently turned down every offer to return that came from nostalgic directors. In 2010, she sold her last property on the Croatian coast to simplify her personal estate.

Beba Lončar has lived in her apartment in the Serbian capital ever since, without giving televised interviews.