Unforgettable Anna Magnani
It becomes a categorical imperative to pay a tribute to Anna Magnani, one of the major interpreters of the incipient changes in the history of women and a symbol of post-war Italian cinema, on the anniversary of her birth (7 March 1908) through the memory of her human figure and his artistic activity marked by successes and prestigious awards. At the end of the summer of 1973 he left his home in Palazzo Altieri without ever returning there. She was only 65 years old when her twenty days agony at the Mater Dei clinic in Rome, assisted by her beloved son Luca, born of a relationship between the actress and actor Massimo Serato, and her closest friends, ended.
His unforgettable face continues to flow in the famous interpretations on the stages and on the screens in which he tells the life, problems and real needs of Italians at a time when the cinema leaves the studios and goes down into the streets in contact with people taking its name of Neorealism. Just as the protagonist of the film Rome, open city by Roberto Rossellini, considered the manifesto of Neorealism, Anna Magnani in 1945 achieved world fame and won her first Silver Ribbon.
Famous is the sequence in which Sora Pina (Anna Magnani) desperately chases the German truck in which her husband Francesco is locked up until she falls to the ground killed by German machine guns. Ironic, joyful, ready to darken in anger or destroy herself in pain, weak, full of doubts and uncertainties.
Filmography and awards
Anna Magnani goes through her brilliant career playing many films including The tattooed rose by Daniel Mann, together with Burt Lancaster, managing to conquer America itself where, in 1956, she was awarded the Oscar as best leading actress: she was the first Italian actress in the history of the Academy Awards to receive the coveted statuette. Other awards followed such as two David di Donatello, five Silver Ribbons, a Golden Globe, a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama, a Bafta, as International Actress of the Year, two National Board of Review, a New York Critics Circle Award, a Coppa Volpi in Venice and a Silver Bear in Berlin.
He was one of the few Italian personalities to have a star in the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame, a famous street in Hollywood where 2000 five-pointed stars are set, awarded to celebrities for their contribution to the star system and the entertainment industry.
Anna Magnani, with raven hair, white skin, an overwhelming and sonorous smile, a magnetic gaze, an overwhelming physicality, embodied famous characters in an uninterrupted series of masterpieces including Down with wealth by Gennaro Righelli, The Honorable Angelina by Luigi Zampa, The fur is fantastic by Luchino Visconti, In the city of hell by Renato Castellani, Laughter of Joy by Mario Monicelli, the first and only film alongside Totò, Red shirts by Goffredo Alessandrini in the role of Anita Garibaldi, The Golden carriage by Jean Renoir who made her famous in France, Wild is the wind by George Cukor e Pelle di serpente by Sidney Lumet: constant in all the films his character with a fiery and passionate temperament but also capable of touching and unpredictable sweetness.
All elements that conquered Pier Paolo Pasolini who wanted her to be the protagonist in the film Mom Roma marking the artistic life of the actress who, shortly after in 1972, gave Federico Fellini the authentic face of Rome in the film of the same name. It was his last appearance on the screen after having triumphantly trod all the stages of Europe interpreting The she-wolf by Giovanni Verga, directed by Franco Zeffirelli and Medea di Anhuil, directed by Giancarlo Menotti. For television he made four films directed by Alfredo Giannetti, the fourth of which was the year of grace 1870, initially destined for cinemas, later landed on TV. The actress did not participate in its preview screening for the press because sick: she died a few hours earlier, precisely on September 26, 1973.
