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In a performance of wondrously robust and ebullient wilfulness, Anna Magnani plays a mother who dreams of screen stardom for her child, dragging her poor little mite of a stuttering, lisping daughter along to an audition by ‘Stella Film’ for the lead part in their next film. Her ambition for the child, fuelled partly by a wish to escape the poverty of their rented housing and partly by the large screen of the outdoor cinema that shows Hollywood films she can watch from her back yard, leads her to spend every penny of the money she can earn as a nurse dispensing injections to diabetic patients in her neighbourhood, and every penny of her life savings too: on a studio photograph, on a dress, on recitation lessons from an odd out of work actress, on ballet classes, on a bribe that she suspects will be wasted, and is. And where does all of this effort lead? To a poignant, enraging rasp of truth at the back of a screening room, where she secretly watches with her daughter as the director and his assistants cruelly comment on the young actresses’ performances.

A satire on the perceived glamour of the movie industry, this is also a comedy with a core of heartbreaking truth. It shows Visconti’s neo-realist style moving towards stylisation and theatricality, and also gives us a fascinating glimpse into the Cinecittà complex as it was in the early 1950s.

The film belongs to Magnani though. Her amazing central performance led Bette Davis to exclaim, ‘This is Magnani, tempestuous. This is Magnani, brilliant and uninhibited. This is Magnani full of volcanic, earthy power. This is Magnani, tender, poignant, and unbelievably stirring.’ Yes, this is Magnani, and it is part of the film’s rich irony that, in revealing the shallowness of stardom and the heartless machinations of the movie industry, she should be such an undeniable star presence.

This Masters of Cinema DVD comes in a beautiful print indeed. An accompanying documentary provides interviews with many of the distinguished participants in the production – assistant directors Francesco Rosi and Franco Zeferelli and screenwriter Suso Cecchi d’Amico among them. A superb addition to Visconti’s films on DVD.

 

Graeme Hobbs on 5th September 2007
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