Bulgari’s Role In Film

Bulgari is no stranger to the silver screen. The jewels of the renowned house have been featured in numerous films. Actresses who were patrons, such as Elizabeth Taylor, wore her own pieces in The V.I.P.s or the house lent to various movies including, but not limited to Casino and Pret A Porter.

The most recent film Don’t Worry Darling, is sparkling with jewels from Bulgari’s heritage department, including pieces the company bought back at auction, once owned by Ellen Barkin and the legendary Audrey Hepburn.

While the film met with mixed reviews, the costumes were perfectly chosen by designer Arianne Phillips who dressed the cast in mid-20th-century fashion depicting the period in which it takes place. The Bulgari treasures were also designs of that time and worn in a pivotal scene by characters played by director/actress Olivia Wilde, lead actress Florence Pugh, actresses Gemma Chan and Sydney Chandler. It was a feast for the jewelry enthusiast’s eye.

Bulgari jewels in films have been masterfully chosen for character development or to enrich the storyline, as in pieces worn by Igrid Bergman in the 1964 movie ’The Visit and those worn by Sharon Stone in Martin Scorsese’s 1995 film Casino.

Stone plays a hustler named ‘Ginger’ who becomes the wife of ‘Ace’ (Robert De Niro). Set in 1970s Las Vegas, there is a scene where ‘Ace’ gives ‘Ginger’ a suitcase full of jewels, and she is draped in a chinchilla coat on a bed. She spreads out the gold and gemstone Bulgari jewelry pieces, setting the tone for the rest of the relationship between them. How she looks at the jewelry speaks volumes about her time as a hustler and her inability to love ‘Ace’ as a wife, no matter what he does to try to make her happy.

Bulgari also appears in Robert Altman’s 1994 satirical comedy Prêt-à-Porter—not just Bulgari jewels but Paolo Bulgari himself. The plot revolves around models, designers and journalists descending on Paris for fashion week. There is a star-studded cast and a slew of cameo roles. Sophia Loren plays ‘Isabella de la Fontaine’, whose character wears a Bulgari suite of earrings and a necklace. Throughout her career, she has been a customer of the renowned brand in real life. Is art imitating reality or the other way around?

Gina Lollobrigida, another Hollywood legend, was known for purchasing her own Bulgari jewelry. The actress-turned-artist and sculptress is quoted as saying: “Jewels are meant to give pleasure and for many years I had enormous pleasure wearing mine. …I love the stones—the pearls and emeralds—because they are natural, the raw products of nature. Then there is the skill of the artist involved, the craftsmanship of turning these beautiful stones into works of art. Each one is like a sculpture.”

In 2013, as part of the auction house’s Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels sale, Sotheby’s Geneva sold twenty-three of Gina Lollobrigida’s Bulgari jewels, including a pair of natural pearl and diamond earrings that sold to an anonymous bidder for an unexpected £1.5 million ($2,391,321). The proceeds from the sale went to funding stem-cell research, a cause that the actress has personally backed.

Here Lollobrigida is wearing her own Bulgari jewels in the 1964 film Woman of Straw

Elizabeth Taylor was wearing her own emerald Bulgari jewels in The 1963 The V.I.P.s.

The house’s history is cemented by its ability to change with the times, create high jewelry with innovative precision and the jeweler’s artful eye for the rarest of colored gemstones. Its famed film actresses have always been part of the Bulgari story—those mentioned as well as the powerhouse of an actress Anna Magnani. Its role in film continues to dazzle us— the convertible diamond necklace that splits into two bracelets, ruby and diamond earrings, diamond bracelet and platinum, gold and diamond pieces featured in Don’t Worry Darling. If you haven’t seen it in theaters, it will start streaming on November 7th on HBO Max. And while you are streaming, you can find and catch up on the earlier films which cast Bulgari in the spotlight.