Bellissima

A ferociously ambitious Roman working-class mother becomes consumed by the quest to launch her young daughter as a film star, dragging the bewildered child through auditions, acting coaches and hustlers at Cinecittà Studios. Visconti uses the movie-industry setting to dissect the delusions that glamour sells to ordinary people, even as Magnani's blazing performance makes Maddalena simultaneously absurd and heartbreaking. It is a film about the gap between the Italy people dream of and the Italy they actually inhabit.

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