From lead roles in Hollywood to the stages of Paris, Greta Scacchi's acting career has taken her around the world.

But the 57-year-old is particularly fond of the cinema of Italy, where she was born.
"I think that, as in many countries in the world, Italy is in a period of change," Scacchi told RN Drive.

"There's been a struggle with economic pressures and with the pressures of informal immigration.

"Because of the shifting identity of Italy, and the difficulties that people are suffering there, the cinema is beginning to produce a kind of new neo-realism that's as gritty and real and good as some of their post-war cinema."

Scacchi, who is an ambassador for the Italian Film Festival, which is touring capital cities, believes that there is an open reverence for art, academia and culture in Italy, which leads to a very different sort of film than those produced by major Western studios.

"When you watch Italian films it's very engaging, because you must engage with them," she said.

"You are requested, as an audience, not to just lie back and have the thing wash over you — you have to think and apply yourself and then you'll find it's very rewarding.

"It [Italian cinema] doesn't necessarily answer all the questions; the stories can have some inconclusive quality, but that is their truth — not all questions can be answered and things aren't black and white."
Though she is best known for her work in Hollywood films like Presumed Innocent and The Player, for Scacchi those projects were a means to an end — a chance to return to the roles she truly loved in Europe.

"I didn't go to Hollywood until I really had to," Scacchi said.

:ABC