Anna Magnani: Eternal Soul of Italian Cinema
September 25–December 4, 2016
A series spotlighting Italian actress Anna Magnani, who brought a unique combination of exuberance, empathy, and intelligence to all the parts she played.
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Teresa Venerdi
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Many Dreams Along the Way
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Bellissima
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Mamma Roma
- Upcoming
Films - Past
Films - Past
Events
Past Films
Angelina
Luigi Zampa
Italy, 1947BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
Sunday, September 25 7 PMView DetailsMagnani won Best Actress at Venice for her funny and formidable portrait of an accidental activist from the impoverished suburbs of Rome in this populist comedy.
Teresa Venerdì
Vittorio De Sica
Italy, 1941Saturday, October 1 8:30 PMView DetailsMagnani plays a showgirl involved with playboy pediatrician Vittorio De Sica, who is also pursued by an heiress and a comely orphan, in this “screwball romantic comedy of the first rank” (New York Times).
Full Speed
Mario Mattoli
Italy, 1934Sunday, October 2 4:30 PMView DetailsMagnani has a small but spirited part as a maid in this delightful comedy of errors starring Vittorio De Sica as a repressed young professor.
Bellissima
Luchino Visconti
Italy, 1952Saturday, October 8 8:15 PMView DetailsMagnani is magnificent as a mother prepared to sacrifice everything for her little daughter’s shot at stardom in Visconti’s satire on urban life and movieland ambition.
The Peddler and the Lady
Mario Bonnard
Italy, 1943Sunday, October 9 4:30 PMView DetailsMagnani created the first of the raucous working-class characters that would become her trademark in this comedy starring Aldo Fabrizi (Rome Open City) as a lovestruck fishmonger.
Rome Open City
Roberto Rossellini
Italy, 1945Digital Restoration
BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
Friday, October 14 8:15 PMView DetailsMagnani gives an indelible performance as the pregnant lover of a Resistance worker in this neorealist classic, as moving and agonizing today as it was in 1945.
The Bandit
Alberto Lattuada
Italy, 1946BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
Saturday, October 15 6 PMView DetailsA former prisoner of war becomes entangled with the seductive, ruthless Magnani and her criminal gang in this drama set amid the turmoil of war-torn Italy.
Angelina
Luigi Zampa
Italy, 1947BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
Sunday, October 16 4 PMView DetailsMagnani won Best Actress at Venice for her funny and formidable portrait of an accidental activist from the impoverished suburbs of Rome in this populist comedy.
The Bandit
Alberto Lattuada
Italy, 1946BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
Friday, October 21 6:30 PMView DetailsA former prisoner of war becomes entangled with the seductive, ruthless Magnani and her criminal gang in this drama set amid the turmoil of war-torn Italy.
Many Dreams Along the Way
Mario Camerini
Italy, 1948Saturday, October 22 6 PMView DetailsMagnani is comic and affecting in this tale of a Roman housewife who thwarts her luckless husband’s efforts to make a dishonest living. Costarring Massimo Girotti (Ossessione).
Volcano
William Dieterle
Italy, United States, 1950Sunday, October 23 4 PMView DetailsMagnani’s retort to Roberto Rosellini’s Stromboli is a tale of cruel lives in a harsh landscape, with Magnani as a Neapolitan prostitute sent back to the volcanic island of her birth.
Rome Open City
Roberto Rossellini
Italy, 1945Digital Restoration
BAMPFA Student Committee Pick
Thursday, October 27 7 PMView DetailsMagnani gives an indelible performance as the pregnant lover of a Resistance worker in this neorealist classic, as moving and agonizing today as it was in 1945.
Bellissima
Luchino Visconti
Italy, 1952Saturday, October 29 6 PMView DetailsMagnani is magnificent as a mother prepared to sacrifice everything for her little daughter’s shot at stardom in Visconti’s satire on urban life and movieland ambition.
The Golden Coach
Jean Renoir
France, Italy, United Kingdom, 1952Saturday, November 5 5:30 PMView DetailsRenoir’s graceful comedy revolves around Magnani as the star of a commedia dell’arte troupe in eighteenth-century Peru. François Truffaut called it “the noblest and most refined film ever made.”
. . . And the Wild Women
Roberto Castellani
Italy, 1959Imported Print
Sunday, November 6 4 PMView DetailsThis women-in-prison picture features Magnani at her most pungent as a brazen jailbird who takes innocent new inmate Giulietta Masina under her wing.
The Passionate Thief
Mario Monicelli
Italy, 1960Saturday, November 12 5:30 PMView DetailsMagnani is marvelous as a hapless would-be actress in this beloved comedy, also featuring Totò and Ben Gazzara. “Like a long night of champagne without the hangover” (Time Out New York).
Mamma Roma
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Italy, 1962Sunday, November 13 4:30 PMView DetailsPasolini captured Magnani “like a found object” (Village Voice) in her role as a spirited prostitute; her downtrodden exuberance embodies Rome itself.
The Fugitive Kind
Sidney Lumet
United States, 1960Saturday, November 19 5:30 PMView DetailsMagnani meets Marlon Brando (and Maureen Stapleton and Joanne Woodward) in this smoldering adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s Orpheus Descending. Followed by a Magnani-themed dinner at Babette ($40/person).
The Rose Tattoo
Daniel Mann
United States, 1955Sunday, November 20 7 PMView DetailsMagnani won an Oscar for her American film debut as a widow whose repressed emotions are rekindled by big-hearted lummox Burt Lancaster. Tennessee Williams created the part for Magnani.
The Passionate Thief
Mario Monicelli
Italy, 1960Friday, November 25 8 PMView DetailsMagnani is marvelous as a hapless would-be actress in this beloved comedy, also featuring Totò and Ben Gazzara. “Like a long night of champagne without the hangover” (Time Out New York).
1870
Alfredo Giannetti
Italy, 1972Saturday, November 26 5:45 PMView DetailsMagnani appears opposite Marcello Mastroianni in this Risorgimento period drama. Her final starring role is a reprise of and tribute to every passionate woman of the people she ever created.
Wild Is the Wind
George Cukor
United States, 1957Sunday, November 27 4:30 PMView DetailsCukor, Hollywood’s finest director of actresses, takes on the great Italian film diva in this Nevada-set melodrama costarring Anthony Quinn.
Mamma Roma
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Italy, 1962Saturday, December 3 8 PMView DetailsPasolini captured Magnani “like a found object” (Village Voice) in her role as a spirited prostitute; her downtrodden exuberance embodies Rome itself.
The Golden Coach
Jean Renoir
France, Italy, United Kingdom, 1952Sunday, December 4 4 PMView DetailsRenoir’s graceful comedy revolves around Magnani as the star of a commedia dell’arte troupe in eighteenth-century Peru. François Truffaut called it “the noblest and most refined film ever made.”
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