21/05/2003 - From Hot d'Or to Critics' Week. The former hardcore porn star turns serious actress in Italian Edoardo Gabriellini's B.B. e il Cormorano, screened in Critics' Week

This film represents Selen’s chance for a shot at serious, big-time cinema. Although she’s no stranger to Cannes, her earlier appearances here were “back door” events at the spectacular Hot d’Or Awards, the hardcore porn industry’s equivalent of the Palme d’Or.
Selen is an erotic icon in her native Italy, but this sweet, gentle, fragile and surprisingly shy young woman we meet has none of the up-front-in-your-face audacity one would expect from someone of her chosen calling. She made her last porn movie five years ago, although you’d never know it: films in which she appears are released at a relentless pace. That includes films she never actually made: archive footage edited together or behind the scenes material. But now Selen has been given the chance to start over.
Edoardo Gabbriellini cast her in B.B. e il Cormorano (B.B. and the Cormorant) and the film was selected to close Critics’ Week in Cannes. Selen arrived in the French resort three days early, happy as Larry!
Selen’s is no ordinary story. She was the designated heir of Moana Pozzi, and like her tragic predecessor, Selen was born into a upper middle-class family: her father is a wealthy industrialist. Like most youngsters, rebellion was the only option to a life that had largely been marked out for her, the only difference is that Selen made a singular choice and became a porn star. Before going down that road however, Selen joined communes in India and Nepal and was also a street performer. Then came the films. Porn is a film industry unto itself and 20 films a year is considered normal.
But all that changed when she met Gabbriellini. Selen was reborn and chose a new name, the one she was born with, Luce Caponegro.
“Edoardo Gabbriellini offered me this part, the first real part of my life. I am the girlfriend of a rich hotelier. She cares nothing for money: all she wants is love and she’s very sentimental. Like me. When I come to the hotel, I upset the balance of power.
At first I was terrified. Then I gradually found my feet and really started to enjoy myself. And here I am in Cannes – something I never considered even in my wildest dreams. When I used to come for the Hot d’Or awards, I would often wonder what life was like in the "mainstream". I would sit and stare and want. Now I’m here. I can’t say if it’ll last one day or forever, but the important thing is that now I’m here. And I’m happy.”

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