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Less than a month ago was the fortieth anniversary of the death of Anna Magnani, today we would like to pay a tribute to this extraordinary actress symbol of Italian cinema and icon of Neorealism.
“Divine, simply divine” this is how Time magazine described the essence of the actress, by using two words, which in nearly thirty-year career has worked with the greatest Italian directors: De Sica, Rossellini, Pasolini, Visconti, Mattoli, Lattuada, Camerini, Zampa and Fellini for which she appeared for the last time on the big screen, even if already seriously ill , playing herself in a cameo in the movie “Rome“, being Anna Magnani the symbol of the eternal city since “Mamma Roma” by Pier Paolo Pasolini (1962)
With her expressiveness and intensity has embodied the face of the ”commoner” symbol of a poor Italy after the war.
After debuting with “The Blind Sorrento” by Nunzio Malasomma in 1934, was the elegant Fanny in “Cavalleria” directed in 1936 by Marcello Alessandrini (her newly who had just become her husband) and the chanteuse in “Teresa Venerdì” by Vittorio De Sica (1941), the flower girl in “Campo de ‘Fiori” by Mario Bonnard and the popolana of “The Last wagon” by Mario Mattioli, both of 1943.
The first one to believe that he could become a dramatic actress, was Luchino Visconti, who in ’41 chose Anna for “Obsession” but she was pregnant with Luca son of the actor Massimo Serato, and struggling with depression due to a break with the father of her child, then had to give up the movie.
Anna Magnani achieved worldwide fame in 1945 with her role in the movie manifesto of Neorealism, “Rome Open City “by Roberto Rossellini. In this movie Anna is the protagonist of one of the most famous sequences in the history of cinema.
Followed by films such as “The Miracle” (1948) by Rossellini, “Bellissima” (1951) by Visconti, “The Rose Tattoo” (1955) by Daniel Mann , “The Fugitive Kind ”(1960), with Marlon Brando and directed by Sidney Lumet, and “Mamma Roma” (1962) by Pier Paolo Pasolini.
She was the first Italian actress to win the Oscar for Best Actress in 1956 for the movie “The Rose Tattoo“ as well as a multitude of awards.
Strong and passionate woman, had an intense and tormented love story with Rossellini, who left her for Ingrid Bergman, a love triangle which filled the tabloids of the time. Nannarella decides to shoot a movie “Volcano” in response to “Stromboli” the movie that Rossellini was shooting in which he gave the main role written for Anna Magnani to the Swedish actress.
But the affection and esteem between the two artists continued despite the break, and Rossellini was at the bedside of Nannarella until the last moments.
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Such was the fame of the actress that the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin aboard the Vostok in April 12th 1961 said: ”I salute the brotherhood of mankind, I salute the struggle for world peace, and I salute Anna Magnani”.
