Author: Chiara Ricci (edited by)

Year: 2023

Pages: 175

Publisher: Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia; Sabinae

ISBN: 9791280023643

Description

Anna Magnani. Fifty years after her passing, “Bianco e Nero” takes a journey through time and throws us back to the years that saw the rise to success of the greatest actress of Italian cinema and theater. Thanks to valuable period magazines from Chiara Ricci’s collection, this issue’s editor, we travel to an Italy that no longer exists. A country in which, from 1945 onward – the year of Roma città aperta –, Anna Magnani brought to life an array of unforgettable characters, thus becoming a media phenomenon, a pop icon before the word “pop” was even invented. The covers and some of the articles from the press of the time testify to how Anna’s public and private life were just as sensational as her art and talent. Her turbulent romantic relationships, the love for her son Luca, which she strongly defended, the scandalous case of the “two volcanoes” (i.e. the film Vulcano she shot out of spite against Rossellini’s Stromboli, starring her “rival” Ingrid Bergman), her adventure in Hollywood and her friendship with Tennessee Williams… Everything adds up to the portrait of a spirited, courageous woman who did so much for the women of this country, for their struggles and dreams, without necessarily declaring herself a “feminist” or raising political banners. Through this fascinating review of Anna Magnani’s career – from her debut on the theatre stage to the revue, from the masterpieces of neorealism to her return to the scenes with La Lupa and, finally, her late foray into television (she used to call it “the little box”) – we can follow the thread of the history of Italy and Italian women.