‘The Life Ahead’: What To Know About The Netflix Movie Starring Sophia Loren as Madame Rosa

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Stream It Or Skip It: 'The Life Ahead' on Netflix, an Italian Drama Marking the Exceptional Return of Sophia Loren

Netflix audiences will soon be treated to a performance from a legend with The Life Ahead, a new Sophia Loren movie coming to the streaming service this Friday. Now 86 years old, Italian actress Sophia Loren is a staple of classic Hollywood, known for her films like A Special Day, Two Women, Arabesque, Marriage Italian Style, and more.

Don’t necessarily call The Life Ahead—an Italian drama directed by Loren’s son, Edoardo Ponti, and written by Ponti and Ugo Chiti—a comeback. Loren has been working consistently, including previous collaborations with Ponti, like a film adaptation of The Human Voice in 2013. But with a Netflix film, Loren will be reaching both her longtime loyal fans and younger audiences of the streaming generation. Here’s what you need to know about the Sophia Loren movie, The Life Ahead, starring Loren as Madame Rosa.

WHAT IS THE NEW SOPHIA LOREN NETFLIX MOVIE?

Sophia Loren’s new movie is The Life Ahead, which is based on the French novel by Romain Gary, The Life Before Us, originally published in 1975. The book has previously been adapted for the screen in Moshé Mizrahi 1977 French drama, Madame Rosa, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

WHO IS MADAME ROSA?

Madame Rosa is the central character in Gary’s 1975 novel, played by Simone Signoret in the 1977 movie, and played by Loren in the upcoming Netflix adaptation. In the novel, Madame Rosa is an elderly Holocaust survivor who takes in a 10-year-old Muslim boy named Momo who was abandoned by his parents. She runs an unofficial babysitting service for children of sex workers in Paris.

Loren’s version of Madame Rosa in The Life Ahead takes place not in France, but in the Italian port city of Bari. But beyond the relocation, most of the details of the story remain the same.