Anna Magnani  “Immortal Woman”

Nannarella. That’s what Rome called her, her city, which loved her as one loves a queen of the people. Anna Magnani (Rome, 1908 – 1973) was not just an actress: she was an explosion of life, a force of nature who traversed Italian cinema leaving an indelible mark. Raised by her grandmother in the alleys of the capital, trained at the Academy of Santa Cecilia where she had Paolo Stoppa as a classmate, she brought to the screen a truth that admitted no pretense. With Rome, Open City (1945) by Roberto Rossellini, her great love, she gave the world the immortal image of the woman running towards death, embodying the pain and dignity of an Italy in ruins. The first Italian actress to win an Oscar, for The Rose Tattoo (1955) by Daniel Mann, playing a character Tennessee Williams had written with her in mind. She worked with the greatest: De Sica, Visconti (Bellissima), Pasolini (Mamma Roma), Fellini who wanted her in his final gaze on Roma (1972), where Nannarella closes a gate and, with it, an unrepeatable era of cinema.