Michael Walford in Kinoeye, in reference to the September 2007 DVD release of Luchino Visconti's dramatic-comedy Bellissima, about a very devoted (sound)stage mother (Anna Magnani, as her usually Vesuvian self) and her young film-extra daughter, in the British DVD distributor Eureka's "Masters of Cinema" series:
"It is a film which is sadly underwritten in English. Before any critical comment is made it is important to note that this film makes for excellent viewing. Visconti's direction is superb and Anna Maganani [sic] excels in the leading role.
"The well known post-war history Italian Cinema by Peter Bondanella surprisingly fails to mention the film at all. This film is very important for a number of reasons. It marks a transition from Neorealism to post-neorealism within Italian cinema; it is a meta-cinematic film which deals in a biting comedy a critique of the institution of cinema itself — it thus predates [Federico] Fellini's well known La Dolce Vita (1959) by several years; it can be taken as a strong indirect critique of the political direction Italy was taking at the time[,] as well as a critique of the Christian Democratic government's relationship to America[, and] it gives many insights into the way Visconti worked as a director with his performers (Anna Magnani & Alessandro Blasetti [I believe the author means leading man Walter Chiari]); lastly and by no means least as a film it is good viewing — it appears as a favourite of Richard Dyer's in one of Sight & Sounds [sic] surveys about favourite films of critics."
A sample of the Bellissima DVD features:
- New high-definition progressive transfer, in the original aspect ratio
- New and improved optional English subtitles
- A PROPOSITO DI BELLISSIMA [31:42]
- Video interview with Bellissima co-screenwriter and assistant director Francesco Rosi [10:31]
- Original theatrical trailer [3:51]
- 32-page illustrated booklet containing writing by film historian Geoffrey Nowell-Smith
Pedro Almodóvar Becomes a Commander of the Italian Republic
Ann Sheridan: Warner Bros. Star of the 1940s
George Cukor: Top Oscar Directors for Actors III
BELISSIMA is my favorite Anna Magnani film. It irritates me that most people don't even know this films exists. When they think of old movie stars they talk of Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart. They couldn't hold a candle to the Great Anna.