Lincoln Center Pays Tribute to Anna Magnani

i. I. (May 05, 2016)
A special series dedicated to the film work of iconic Italian actress Anna Magnani, May 18 – June 1. The 24-title retrospective will screen entirely on 35mm and 16mm.



The Film Society of Lincoln Center and ​​Istituto Luce Cinecittà have announced the lineup for La Magnani, a series dedicated to the film work of iconic Italian actress Anna Magnani, May 18 – June 1. The 24-title retrospective will screen entirely on 35mm and 16mm.


Anna Magnani’s blend of fiery passion, earthy humor, and unvarnished naturalism made her the symbol of postwar Italian cinema. Launched to worldwide superstardom through her indelible turn in Roberto Rossellini’s Rome Open City, she represented something startlingly new to audiences accustomed to movie-star glamour: here, in all its raw, gritty glory, was life. Equally adept at drama and comedy, she could harness her explosive emotional intensity to move an audience to laughter, tears, or both at once.


La Magnani highlights the actress’s illustrious international career, including powerhouse performances for directors like Rossellini, Luchino Visconti (Bellissima), Pier Paolo Pasolini (Mamma Roma), Federico Fellini (L’amore and Roma), Sidney Lumet (The Fugitive Kind), George Cukor (Wild Is the Wind), William Dieterle (Volcano), Mario Monicelli (The Passionate Thief), and Jean Renoir (The Golden Coach).


This diverse survey of Magnani’s filmography also features a number of the actress’s rarely screened early performances, including her third-ever on-screen appearance, as a scheming maid opposite a young Vittorio De Sica in Mario Mattoli’s Full Speed; as a gold-digging showgirl in De Sica’s Doctor, Beware; showing off her distinctive vocal style as an enchanting nightclub performer in Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia’s La vita è bella; as well as her final roles in Alfredo Giannetti’s historical drama 1870—the only time she appeared opposite Marcello Mastroianni—and Fellini’s Roma, her farewell to film.


The series is the first stop of a traveling retrospective organized by Istituto Luce Cinecittà that will continue at film institutions around the United States, including the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and The Wexner Center in Columbus.


Co-presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and ​​Istituto Luce Cinecittà​​. Organized by Florence Almozini and Dan Sullivan, the Film Society; and by Camilla Cormanni and Paola Ruggiero, Luce Cinecittà. Presented in association with the Ministry of Culture of Italy.​


Tickets go on sale Thursday, May 5. See more for less with a 3+ Film Package or an All Access Pass.

Comments

i-Italy

Facebook

Google+

Select one to show comments and join the conversation