MAGNANI, ANNA

(1908-1973)

Actress. The most celebrated actress of the Italian cinema in the immediate postwar period, Magnani was born illegitimately and grew up in one of the poorer quarters of Rome in the care of her maternal grandmother. An early interest in music — she studied piano at the Academy of Santa Cecilia—gave way to a stronger passion for the theater and she enrolled in the Eleanor Duse Acting School in Rome in 1927. Even before graduating she began working in the theater company of Dario Niccodemi and toured South America with the company in 1928. By 1930 she was becoming well known for her appearances in revues and musical theater. While continuing to work extensively on the stage she began to play small roles in films, her first appearance being in Nunzio Malasomma'sLa cieca di Sorrento(The Blind Woman of Sorrento, 1934). She subsequently played Fanny, thechanteuse, inGoffredo Alessandrini'sCavalleria(Cavalry, 1936), a role that she repeated with slight variation inVittorio De Sica'sTeresa Venerdi(Mademoiselle Friday, 1940). Forced to abandon the part of Giovanna inLuchino Visconti'sOssessione(Obsession, 1943) due to an advanced state of pregnancy, she then went on to play Elide inMario Bonnard'sCampo de'Fiori(Peddler and the Lady, 1943), the first of many incarnations of the forceful, down-to-earth Roman working-class woman that would characterize her acting repertoire from then on. Indeed it was as a variation on this role, playing Pina, the Roman housewife and mother mercilessly gunned down by German fire inRoberto Rossellini'sRoma citta aperta(Rome Open City, 1945, also known asOpen City), that she would score the greatest triumph of her entire career, earning a firstNastro d'argentofor her moving interpretation and being catapulted to international fame by the film's worldwide success.

She subsequently appeared in a wide variety of films that ranged from dramas such asCarmine Gallone'sDavanti a lui tremava tutta Roma(Before Him All Rome Trembled, 1946) andAlberto Lattuada'sIl bandito(The Bandit, 1946) to more lighthearted comedies such asGennaro Righelli'sAbbassa la ricchezza(Peddlin' in Society, 1947).Her splendid performance inLuigi Zampa'sL'Onorevole Angelina(Angelina, MP, 1947), again playing a Roman housewife and mother forced by circumstances to become a political agitator, earned her a second Nastro d'argento and the Volpi Cup at theVenice Festival. She then played the lead inMario Mattoli's remake ofAssunta Spina(Scarred, 1947), a role that had originally been played by silent divaFrancesca Bertiniin 1915, before Rossellini devotedly showcased the range of Magnani's dramatic abilities in the two episodes ofL'amore(Ways of Love, 1948).

After a number of other films in Italy, including her very convincing and moving performance as the self-deluded mother in Visconti'sBellissima(1951) and as the stage actress Camilla in Jean Renoir'sLa carrozza d'oro(The Golden Coach, 1952), she was enticed to America to star opposite Burt Lancaster in a screen adaptation of Tennessee Williams'sThe Rose Tattoo(1955), a performance that brought her the further recognition of an Academy Award. Her reputation as an international star now established and her participation much in demand, she appeared in several other American productions, including George Cukor'sWild Is the Wind(1958), where she starred opposite Anthony Quinn and Anthony Franciosa, and Sydnet Lumet'sThe Fugitive Kind(1960), where she was paired with Marlon Brando. However, both films were relative flops and she returned to Italy where, after appearing withTotoinMario Monicelli's bittersweet comedyRisate di gioia(Joyful Laughter, 1960), she came to play the other role for which she is most remembered, the exprostitute and tragic mother inPier Paolo Pasolini'sMamma Roma(1962).

From this high point, Magnani's film career rapidly declined. After an unimpressive performance in Claude Autant-Lara's lacklusterLa magot de Josefa(Josefa's Loot, 1964), done as part of a deal between producers, she was lured back to the stage and shone in an adaptation of Giovanni Verga'sLa lupa(She Wolf, 1965) and in a production in Italian of Jean Anouilh'sMedea(1966), both directed byFranco Zeffirelli. Enticed once more back to the big screen, she gave a frothy performance as the wife of the drunken vintner played by Anthony Quinn in Stanley Kramer'sThe Secret of Santa Vittoria(1969) and then made four modest films for television directed by Alfredo Giannetti. Rather appropriately, her final appearance in film was a cameo role where she played herself closing the door of her house and wishingFederico Fellinigood night in the concluding sequence of Fellini'sRoma(Fellini Roma, 1972).