Bellissima
Alternate title(s): The Most Beautiful
Foreign Title:
Date: January 01, 1952 to December 31, 1952
Dates Note: 1952
Country of Origin:
Italy
Place of Origin: Italy
Languages:
Italian
Color: B&W
Silent: No
Based On: a story by Cesare Zavattini
Additional Info:
Curator Notes
Film Series/Exhibition Title:
Luchino Visconti: Cinema of Struggle and SplendorDescription:
“What is acting after all?” Maddalena (Anna Magnani) rhetorically asks before the mirror in Visconti’s melodrama of mother love and misplaced ambition. Magnani’s extraordinary performance is its own answer. As a working-class mother desperate to get her young daughter a shot at stardom through a Cinecittà casting call, Magnani turns what might have been a simplistic caricature of a domineering stage mamma into a fully rendered character, both hilarious and tragically human. Visconti’s direction similarly refuses to distinguish between satire and sincerity; even while it mocks the business of moviemaking, Bellissima is an exquisite example of the filmmaker’s craft.
Description:
“What is acting after all?” Maddalena (Magnani) rhetorically asks before the mirror in Visconti’s melodrama of mother love and misplaced ambition. Magnani’s extraordinary performance is its own answer. As Maddalena, a working-class mother desperate to get her young daughter a shot at stardom through a Cinecittà casting call, Magnani turns what might have been a simplistic caricature of a domineering stage mamma into a fully rendered character, both hilarious and tragically human. Visconti’s direction similarly refuses to distinguish between satire and sincerity; even while it mocks the business of moviemaking, Bellissima is an exquisite example of the filmmaker’s craft.
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