Noble gesta

A stunning surprise. Luigi Zampa, the director, is not one of the names you usually hear when "the best Italian cinema" is discussed and yet, look at this movie. From the opening sequence in which Angelina and her husband spend a sleepless night trying to find a way to feed their children, the film grabs you with a truth that's part neo-realistic part pure poetry. Anna Magnani is sensational, allowing her character to wear all those elements that made Magnani famous - feisty, truthful and strong - with a soft, loving side that makes the character one of the most endearing of her illustrious career. As a trivia note, the young romantic lead is played by Franco Zeffirelli.How strange that now, 60 years later, nobody in Italy could make a film with the artistry and the humanity of this one. Framed by a poet told by someone who truly understood the language of cinema. Shame on me, a Roman from Rome who hadn't seen this film. I bet we're legions. I urge you, rent it, buy it, watch it.

Probably one of the most engaged neo-realist films, showing in a some didactic way the origins of a spontaneous social movement with feminist characteristics in a very poor community. It is very important for its objective the well balanced cast and the pathos commonly associated with Magnani's filmic persona since at least her Pina in Rosselini's "Rome Open City (1945). The movie stills the tension levels of his main character, but shows some unnecessary subplots, like the case of the innocuous love story between the daughter of Angelina and the mogul's son (first and acceptable unique role made by a very young Zefirelli as actor). But what diminish its bright is the end of narrative, with the abortion of the public engagement voluntarily made by Angelina in spite of the community support. She would be awake for her main role as mother and wife, the main unsatisfied with her new role being obvious the ineffective husband (Nando Bruno) that lack his importance in the family since she begun her cathartic leadership. Is a kind of counter climax for someone waiting a more progressive end. This return of status quo values is indicative even in its visual style - the last sequence, in a circular way, reproduce the same long camera movement describing all the family quiet in its respective beds of its prologue. Nothing changes at all. In this sense, is too little in comparison with his next film, "Anni Difficili", a stunning panorama of Italian fascist years from its rise to the fall.

After WW2, the people in the street (actually, for there was no housing available) suffered a lot, and so did Angelina and her family, and her neighbours. In 1947, in a realistic setting, Zampa filmed her loved actress, Anna Magnani with so much affection that you can feel it. B&W drama, with moments of inescapable comic relief, will have you routing for the rowdy woman with so few education, and so much humanity, and passion, in her... ***** performance, and a sample of what a mature sexy Latino woman looked like then.