Customer Reviews

Bellissima [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.....

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.

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?

Anna Magnani is my favorite actress of all time. She could act more with just her facial expressions than most other actors could combining verbal with body expression. The story is a simple one, a willful stage mother trying to get her young daughter into the movies via a star search contest at Rome's Cinecitta studios. The time is post war Italy, economic recovery is slow and money is scarce. Her husband Spartaaco regards this quest for stardom to be a waste of time but Maddalena pursues it vigorously eventually spending all their savings. There is a pivotal scene where Maddalena is watching her daughters screen test. Here is where Magnani's abiltiy use expression so effectively is most pronounced. Her facial expressions go from happy to confused to angry to resignation as to what is actually going on in the screening. The scene is also a pivitol one to the plot which changes Maddelena so drastically.
I have always been a fan of Italian neo-realist cinema being of Italian descent myself and this film is one of the best. Unfortunately it has not been released in the United States but I have an all regions DVD player. Overall one of Magnami's best efforts and I am so glad to finally be able to experience it.