Bellissima (film)

115 minutes {release version}CountryItalyLanguageItalian

Bellissima is a 1951 Italian drama film directed by Luchino Visconti and starring Anna Magnani, Walter Chiari and Tecla Scarano.^[1] In 2008, the film was included on the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage’s 100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."^[2]

Bellissima centers on a working-class mother in Rome, Maddalena, who drags her young daughter to Cinecittà Studios to attend an audition for a new film by Alessandro Blasetti. Maddalena's efforts to promote her daughter grow increasingly frenzied.

• Anna Magnani as Maddalena Cecconi
• Walter Chiari as Alberto Annovazzi
• Tina Apicella as Maria Cecconi
• Gastone Renzelli as Spartaco Cecconi
• Tecla Scarano as Tilde Spernanzoni
• Lola Braccini as the photographer's wife
• Arturo Bragaglia as the photographer
• Nora Ricci as the laundry girl
• Vittorina Benvenuti
• Linda Sini as Mimmetta
• Teresa Battaggi as a mother
• Gisella Monaldi as a concierge
• Amalia Pellegrini
• Corrado Mantoni as radio announcer

Alessandro Blasetti, a contemporary film director, appears as himself. Keeping in with the tradition of Italian neorealism a number of roles went to members of the public.^{[citation needed]} Magnani played a part in their selection, approving of Gastone Renzelli a butcher who was cast as her husband.^[3]

The film's sets were designed by Gianni Polidori. It was shot at the Cinecittà Studios, which appear prominently in the film. It was not a box office success.^[4]

• Nastro d'Argento for Best Actress Anna Magnani

• Gundle, Stephen. Fame Amid the Ruins: Italian Film Stardom in the Age of Neorealism. Berghahn Books, 2019.

• Bellissima at IMDb