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Rossellini pedals off, for an hour or more, through a dozen or so takes of the cow playlet. As she waits at rest for the camera to roll, her resemblance to her mother, Actress Ingrid Bergman, is powerfully clear: the wide cheekbones, the astonishing directness, the serene impression of physical and moral strength. In motion, as she smiles and gives the flower to the cowherd, she flashes the life and openness that were, she says, the unforgettable traits of her father, Film Director Roberto Rossellini. These characteristics are not physical. It does not seem especially important to catalogue her face, to mention that the exotic, slighty aquiline curve of her nose is balanced by the take-it-or-leave-it simplicity of her short, dark hair.
What the skilled camera sees in Rossellini is the rich texture of a life. Two top fashion photographers make almost identical observations about her. Richard Avedon calls her "a joy to work with—she's the product of an interesting life, not a model wired to a Walkman." Says Bruce Weber: "It's inspiring to shoot a woman who really is a woman, not a teen in woman's clothing. Isabella has turned everything around, making age, depth, experience, substance attractive."
The children of Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini did not really understand the scandal that raged when their parents fell in love and Bergman left her husband, Dr. Fetter Lindstrom, to live unmarried with Rossellini and have a child, Roberto, by him. Isabella and her twin sister Ingrid were born in 1952, two years later, and their parents were married. But the scandal continued to haunt them. Says Isabella: "Every time Father came out with an unsuccessful film, the critics said he was old and crazy. We felt these assaults, and the intrusion of the paparazzi, very deeply, and we became very protective of our parents. Every time we'd see a long lens poking out from a bush, the whole gang would rush out and throw stones." Isabella still reveres her parents. "Father was an incredible man, both intellectual and emotional at the same time, very original. Mama's strength was her capacity to be direct. She had terrific instincts for dealing with children."
Bergman and Rossellini divorced when the twins were five. Although Ingrid had custody, the children moved eventually to Rome, where they lived with a nanny across the street from Rossellini's own house. Ingrid occasionally spent time there, and Pia, her daughter by her previous marriage, moved in for three years. Rossellini's three children by other alliances were often on hand. "Like all Italian children," says Isabella, "we were integrated into adult life, taken to restaurants, to the theater, doing whatever they did."