Reviews & Ratings for
Bellissima More at IMDbPro »

49 out of 53 people found the following review useful:
Magnani and Visconti, 29 August 2005

Author: bethlambert117 from United States

It was as if I had taken a time machine back to 1951. Sitting at the open theater of Tiberina Island in Rome, Anna Magnani's voice bounced off the ancient angles of this stunning roman spot. "Bellissima" is a timeless masterpiece. A rarity in Visconti's oeuvre. He puts all of his uncanny attention to detail to the service of Magnani's bombastic, tender, funny, extraordinary performance. Visconti knew how to bring the best in his actors. Even Maria Callas who, under Visconti's guidance, went from the greatest Opera singer to the greatest actress singing Opera. There are moments in "Bellissima" that can only be described as a love letter from Visconti to Magnani and vice versa. She has a few close ups that tells us how much love, respect and admiration existed between this two enormous artists. Look at her moments in the mirror, combing her hair naturally, debating under her breath the proper pronunciation of a word. She, not a conventional beauty, looks ravishing. The message about the dangers of immediate fame and fortune could have been written today. If you have a chance, don't miss it. If you love film, it's a must!

29 out of 36 people found the following review useful:
Very beautiful; Magnani at her best, 27 May 2000
Author: creight from Los Angeles, CA

If you see only one film by Anna Magnani, see BELLISSIMA. The is "La Magnani" at her comic best. Get the video with English subtitles because even if your italian is good, the verbal onslaught is thick and fast. Preferably one should see this film on the big screen to get the full impact of Magnani's performance. She plays a stage mother who is trying to get her young, tiny little girl into the movies. Magnani's warmth, wit, slyness and sheer volcanic beauty leap from the screen. I am amazed that Hollywood has not re-made this film. It would be the perfect vehicle for Barbra Streisand or Bette Midler and would assure them of an Oscar nomination. Unlike her English language roles, such as "The Rose Tattoo" or "The Secret of Santa Vittoria", in BELLISSIMA Magnani acts in her native italian voice. It makes all the difference in the world. When she acted in English, she was stilted and restrained; the language barrier, although she made super-human, heroic efforts to master English, is nonetheless felt. But in her native tongue, Magnani lets loose with a bravura performance. I defy anyone not to fall in love with her after watching BELLISSIMA.

20 out of 27 people found the following review useful:
A masterpiece about the "dream industry" and shattered dreams, 27 January 2004

Author: BlueGreen from Somewhere in Europe

A wonderful, poignant masterpiece by the great Visconti and Anna-the-Great-Magnani. On the surface, it is a simple story about a mother's obsession to use her little daughter's appearance to escape the poverty of post-war Italy. What transpires is the cruel truth about the beauty- and illusion-making industry (cinema), with all its inherent cynicism, at a time when hunger for the daily bread was equaled by hunger for fantasy and beauty.

I've seen this movie only once, ages ago, and it still remains with me as one of the most unforgettable films I have ever seen. In a world that has seen hundreds of thousands of films that is no small feat.

17 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
A Tale of Disillusion, 6 August 2005

Author: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

In a post-war Italy, Maddalena Cecconi (Anna Magnani) is a woman from the lower classes abused by her husband Spartaco Cecconi (Gastone Renzelli), who is obsessed to make her young daughter Maria (Tina Apicella) a star in the cinema industry. She expects a better life for Maria, and she sacrifices her marriage and her savings paying interpretation and ballet teachers, dress, hairdresser and bribe for the small time crook Alberto Annovazzi (Walter Chiari) to make her dream come true. When the director sees the test of Maria, Maddalena realizes the reality and cruelty of the entertainment industry.

"Belissima" is a beautiful tale of disillusion. Anna Magnani has a magnificent interpretation in a role of a very poor mother and frustrated woman, spanked by her husband, trying to give a better life for her young daughter. Living nearby a movie theater, she sees the opportunity when a famous director is chasing a young talent for his next movie. Her characters gives the best effort within her short culture and vision trying to make her dream comes true, being very touching the moment when her dreams are shattered. The direction of Luchino Visconti is precise and flawless as usual, and the story is very real and credible. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Belíssima" ("Very Beautiful")

9 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
A tour-de-force, 6 August 2006

Author: Martin Bradley (MOscarbradley@aol.com) from Derry, Ireland

Anna Magnani is magnificent as a pushy show-biz mother determined to get her daughter into the movies. She's like an early prototype of Bette Midler but she's more down-to-earth and with a greater propensity for feeling. (Midler could do the comedy but not the pathos). The film is charming but for a Visconti movie, it's slight. It's a great director's trifle about the movies; he enjoys poking fun at the stereotypes he's worked with in more serious films. It's laugh out loud funny.

The film doesn't offer any insights into the movie-making process and even the wheeling and dealing seems perfunctory. At times you wish maybe Visconti had gone a little deeper. (At the end he makes a point that the movies can be shallow but we know that already). Take Magnani out of the equation and there really isn't much left. She's the life-force that holds it together. It really is a great piece of acting.

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Bellissima!, 16 October 2010

Author: cpwillett from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

***Spoiler alert*** Anna Magnani is a force of nature in this movie. As Maddalena, she laughs, she cries, and kisses 50,000 lire goodbye, all in an attempt to make a better life for her young daughter. She thinks that future is in the movies, and Maddalena is the ultimate stage mother.

La Magnani dominates any and every scene she's in. One remarkable scene is when she pushes her way into the screening of her daughter's screen test: she recognizes an assistant who had acted in a film called "Under the sun of Rome" (Sotto il sole di Roma). This is an actual film, and as I had just seen it last week (it's the season of Neorealism for me), I recognized that the actress was indeed the female lead in that earlier film. The assistant describes how she's dropped out of acting because no director has hired her lately, which starts to undermine Magnani's dream for her daughter. A remarkable bit of verisimilitude, and causes all kinds of alienation effects. Great film, great performances, including the actor who played Maddalena's husband (in another brilliant touch, named "Spartaco"!)

1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Bellissima is Beautiful, 17 September 2010

Author: Ilpo Hirvonen from Finland

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Luchino Visconti's third feature film, Bellissima (1951) is without a doubt his key work. In this film Visconti's common themes and the basis of his art are portrayed. Bellissima is a very realistic film; the first observation of Visconti is the alienation of man -- that's why he locates his characters in social relations. Luchino Visconti was able to trap his characters into their own existence. The characters are prisoners of their own environments. Bellissima is a very beautiful film, but the beauty doesn't come from picturesque images or incredibly misery. The beauty comes from the way how the film is able to honor people in all situations. Bellissima is a tribute to life and innocence.

A director announces that he needs a 6-8 year old girl to play a role in his film. Just like hundreds of women, Maddalena Cecconi drags her daughter to the audition. The dream of her daughter's career puts everything else aside; their family savings are spent to the girl's ballet lessons and new dresses. Maddalena is blinded by fame, fortune and romantic illusion. But in the end the cruelty and superficiality of the industry make her realize what really matters.

A common feature in the films by Visconti is the escapism of drama. Anna Magnani's character escapes to the world of cinema, watching John Wayne and Montgomery Clift's adventures in Howard Hawks' Red River. Through cinema she denies her responsibility -- cinema is her redemption. This refers to Maddalena Cecconi's relationship between her daughter. She is completely alienated from her and by taking her to the world of cinema, she tries to escape the problematic milieu, combine reality and fiction; to make ugly look beautiful. But Maddalena is actually only changing her alienation to another form.

The film exudes social reality, the one which forces one to act. It seems like the only way to keep your purity. But eventually one will leave this aesthetic life behind and realize the true dignity of man. Anna Magnani's character has been blind her whole life, for many years. But the cruelty of the film industry suddenly makes her realize this deep dignity. The ending of Bellissima is absolutely beautiful; the camera chases through the apartment and takes a close-up of the girl asleep. This is the first time fiction, fantasy and illusion have been forgotten; now only the true innocence and beauty are revealed. The true beauty of life.

3 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
How To Lose When You've Won, 22 November 2009

Author: anthony_retford from Seattle

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I was really disappointed with this movie. Perhaps it had something to do with Mama Roma which I had just watched. I did not find Magnoni realistic for the part. She was acting so hard it hurt me. I can understand a mother who pursues an acting chance for her child but this mother took it to excess and then threw away the opportunity she had "sacrificed" so much for. The ending of the movie was ridiculous - she returns from the screen test to find a contract waiting for her, and at 2,000,000 lira to boot, and can find nothing to say but that she is hurt that her daughter was used as a fun object and laughed at. With the brazenness and unfeeling attitude she displayed all through the film I could not find her rejection of a contract believable in the least.

We were supposed to see her husband as a brutish lout but he just did not appear that way. He seemed the sensible parent, not like the mother. She made a show of showing the way she was beaten but there were no signs at all. And when she said to him at the end about slapping her it was not realistic at all. That part was just in the story I suppose to make her a repository of our sympathies. But it just did not work. In my opinion he was a much better parent than she.

I am am not sure why people find Magnoni a compelling actress. She is earthy and annoying. She seems one-dimensional to me. I could not see much difference in her performances in this film and Mama Roma.

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