Bellissima (1951)

Neorealism that slightly departs from its traditions and offers us melodrama through facial expressions. Amazing film. You just can't help but love how this genre manifests in its own environment. It is so immersive, authentic, and self-assured that this nearly two-hour…

wersku

Nobody rips your heart out quite like Anna Magnani.

Anna Imhof 🌸

Art’s effort to mimic life eliminates the realism of both art and life in Luchino Visconti’s “Bellissima.”  The film is Visconti’s pastiche of neorealism - made directly after he had achieved a masterpiece of the movement in “La Terra Trema.” Following the earnestness of…

theriverjordan

HOLY CHRIST! WHEN THE ITALIANS SCREAM, THEY SCREAM NON-STOP AND LOUD! Behold Anna Magnani in one of the best female performances in cinema history as the protagonist of Visconti's hysterical and super-charged comedy about the dramatic illusions of a lower class woman who…

Edgar Cochran ✝️🍋

Anna Magnani's eyes hold the secrets to the universe.

regina

In Italia viviamo di raccomandazioni. Mi raccomando, si ricordi, le assicuro, le prometto e poi non ci si ricorda perché non si può ricordare. E di chi si deve ricordare e perché ci si deve ricordare? Qua esiste solo un mezzo, sicuro e infallibile e buono per tutti, e…

LudoPm

When I was unwrapping my Masters of Cinema DVDs I didn't remember that I had this film in my small collection. Bellissima is a beautiful story in which more than a critic of Showbiz I would say is a psychological drama where we see how a mother who lives with low-income saw…

Mario Melendez

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…

Gvolpe

7th Luchino Visconti (after The Leopard, Ludwig, The Innocent, Ossessione, The Damned and Senso) My goodness is Bellissima a loud film. A great deal of the volume comes from Anna Magnani as a forceful stage mother chivvying her young daughter in front of the Cinecittà…

Doc Lyon