LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Anna Magnani: Luchino Visconti
built 640 days ago
This early Luchno Visconti drama stars Anna Magnani as an overbearing stage mother. Magnani's daughter (Tina Apicella) has zero talent, but Magnani raises such a ruckus at the studio after the girl's abortive screen test that the producers eventually find work for the girl. By this point, Magnani has renounced show business and, with daughter in tow, returns to her patient husband, who has been waiting for his wife to get her dreams of vicarious stardom out of her system. Based on a story by famed Italian scenarist (and frequent Fellini collaborator) Cesar Zavattini, Bellissima seems too trivial a story to be given the tender loving care provided by Visconti. Originally released at 130 minutes, the film was honed down to 90 minutes for American consumption. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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After Open City, Magnani provided the screen with powerful performances as typical neo-realist female characters including strong-willed prostitutes and suffering mothers. In 1947, in L'onorevole Angelina, she played an Italian housewife who bravely fought against black market activities that were rampant in post-war Europe. In 1951, Luchino Visconti, another great Italian director who earned his reputation in neo-realist films, moved into the realm of satire with Bellissima, and he cast Magnani as "Maddelena," an overly aggressive stage mother intent on getting her daughter into movies. The moment when the character realizes that the studio heads are laughing at her daughter's screen test provides cinema with one of its great poignant moments, thanks to Magnani's considerable talents.
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This season encompasses the verbal fireworks of Anna Magnani, the childlike innocence of Giulietta Masina, and the sensual beauty of Claudia Cardinale and Sophia Loren. Many legendary Italian directors (such as Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Luchino Visconti) worked with these women as their muses, creating some of their greatest films around their leading ladies.
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Luchino Visconti