Product Details

• Actors: Anna Magnani, Walter Chiari, Tina Apicella, Gastone Renzelli, Tecla Scarano
• Directors: Luchino Visconti
• Writers: Luchino Visconti, Cesare Zavattini, Francesco Rosi, Suso Cecchi D'Amico
• Producers: Salvo D'Angelo
• Format: PAL
• Language: German
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00004THG9
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #562,635 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully mounted, strangely riveting exploration of the trivial, December 2, 2008

By 

Matthew Watters (Vietnam) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bellissima - English Subtitles/ Digitally Remastered/ Bonus Features [Non-US Format, PAL, Region 2, Import] (DVD)

Visconti's early work, like La Terra Trema and this film, applied the director's scrupulous, elegant technique (slowly panning camera moves, crisply detailed cinematogrpahy, high degree of attention to art direction, costume design and visual motifs, e.g., in Bellissima, a use of mirrors to frame views of what is happening in front of and behind the camera) to utterly ordinary subject matter. The result is somehow riveting, all the more impressive as the characters in this film are never truly at risk of destruction in the way many impoverished characters are in Italian neo-realist films, including La Terra Trema. Instead, Bellissima focuses on a working-class family who, sure, live in a cramped apartment, but they also have a few bucks in the bank and a regular livelihood. The story is of a woman who becomes determined to break her rather ordinary six-year-old daughter into the movie business: the film's gentle satire of Cinecitta and the showbiz hangers-on surrounding it gradually build into the would-be stage mother's utter disillusion with the whole dreamy world of cinema. The great accomplishment of this film is how engrossing it manages to be without ever needing to put any of its characters at any huge risk of downfall. In its way, it is even more utterly real than a few more tragic examples of neo-realist cinema, and its technical and visual confidence -- and its sense of assuredness in its gentle satire and lack of sensationalism -- are striking. A great film masquerading as an inconsequential one.....

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great film but why not a DVD in USA format with English subtitles?, March 18, 2010

By 

Themistocles (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bellissima - English Subtitles/ Digitally Remastered/ Bonus Features [Non-US Format, PAL, Region 2, Import] (DVD)

I love this picture, a tour de force for the great Nannarella, La Magnani. So why is this film not
available on DVD in USA Format with English subtitles for the American audiences? What gives?
Why cannot the U.S. admire the artistry of Magnani? Something is not right.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Criterion Collection: come on - this movie needs US release, May 27, 2011

By 

Indian music lover "Marwa" (Portland, Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bellissima [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Italy ] (DVD)

I totally agree with the other reviewers: this is a great Visconti film and one of the finest performances from La Magnani. Why has the Criterion Collection not obtained the rights for this film and created a version for the USA?