Bellissima

Maddalena, played by the legendary Anna Magnani, will do absolutely anything to get her little daughter Maria (Tina Apicella) a role in a movie. After all, a movie is a ticket to fame and prosperity—and Maddalena knows the taste of Roman poverty. She forces her way through the walls of the Cinecittà studio in the hope of securing an audience with director Alessandro Blasetti. The more obstacles that stand in her way, the more her determination – bordering on madness – grows…

Before Luchino Visconti began making lavish costume dramas such as The Wanton Countess (1954) or The Leopard (1963), he helped establish the rules of neorealism in films such as Obsession(1943) and The Earth Will Tremble (1948).

Bellissima heralds a turning point in the director’s career – Anna Magnani’s emotions burst across the screen, and scene by scene, the film transforms into a kind of fairy tale about a mad mother, intoxicated by the illusions seeping from the movie screen.

Maddalena is the only female protagonist in Visconti’s films who is possessed by the idea of beauty and spectacle to a degree as intense as that of the director’s later male protagonists – such as Gustav in Death in Venice (1971) or Ludwig II of Bavaria in Ludwig: The Mad King of Bavaria (1973).

Anna Magnani’s performance is magnificent, terrifying, and incredibly tender all at once – and in the most powerful scenes of Bellissima, it reaches an intensity that is downright operatic

 

[Michał Oleszczyk]