Let me introduce to you to one of the greatest italian actresses of the post-war era .....Anna Magnani
Born in Rome, 1908 and died in 1973
She was the furthest you could get from her Hollywood counterparts, where they were young, preened and glamourous, Magnani was (gulp) old, (gulp) full-figured and (gulp) incredibly natural. She had an earthy quality to her, was unkempt and yet she portrayed such passion and sensuality.
She came to internationl fame staring in Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City, she gives an incredibly powerful performance as a pregnant widow destined for tragedy at the hands of the Germans. After this, she became a leading actress in the neorealist movement.
Jean Renoir described her as "probably the greatest actress I have ever worked with" and Tennessee Williams wrote the play The Rose Tattoo with Magnani in mind ( she agreed to star in the film version) for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1955. She had a lack of vanity and didn't shy away from films in which she would not look good.
When Magnani played the part of Pina (in Rome, Open City), her final cry in the film so inspired the poet Pasolini that he wrote these lines "Almost an emblem, by now Magnani's cry/beneath her locks disordinately aboslute,/it resounds in the desparate panning shots,/and in her glances, alive and mute/the sense of tragedy is growing. And it is there the present/dissolves, and changes and deafens the song of the bards".
Not only was she a wonderful actress but I feel because of her passion, complexity and strength it really eminates from Magnani and turns her into one of the most beautiful women. She often reminds me of a Modigliani muse.
Images from wanadoo.fr, teatro.org, www.cair.it,www.nga.gov.au, www.italica.rai.it and www.xenix.ch
Born in Rome, 1908 and died in 1973
She was the furthest you could get from her Hollywood counterparts, where they were young, preened and glamourous, Magnani was (gulp) old, (gulp) full-figured and (gulp) incredibly natural. She had an earthy quality to her, was unkempt and yet she portrayed such passion and sensuality.
She came to internationl fame staring in Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City, she gives an incredibly powerful performance as a pregnant widow destined for tragedy at the hands of the Germans. After this, she became a leading actress in the neorealist movement.
Jean Renoir described her as "probably the greatest actress I have ever worked with" and Tennessee Williams wrote the play The Rose Tattoo with Magnani in mind ( she agreed to star in the film version) for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1955. She had a lack of vanity and didn't shy away from films in which she would not look good.
When Magnani played the part of Pina (in Rome, Open City), her final cry in the film so inspired the poet Pasolini that he wrote these lines "Almost an emblem, by now Magnani's cry/beneath her locks disordinately aboslute,/it resounds in the desparate panning shots,/and in her glances, alive and mute/the sense of tragedy is growing. And it is there the present/dissolves, and changes and deafens the song of the bards".
Not only was she a wonderful actress but I feel because of her passion, complexity and strength it really eminates from Magnani and turns her into one of the most beautiful women. She often reminds me of a Modigliani muse.
Images from wanadoo.fr, teatro.org, www.cair.it,www.nga.gov.au, www.italica.rai.it and www.xenix.ch
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eter engelmeier-film album
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