“With her, Italy repeated the mistake it had already made with other great figures.”. He has no doubt Patricia Carrano, writer, presenter and television writer. And in 50 years since the death of Anna Magnani publishes a very thick book that could become a comprehensive book about the great actress. All about Anna was published by Vallecchi and contains everything you’ve always wanted to know about the nation’s Nanarella (but the nickname doesn’t suit Carrano, and she’ll explain why), plus plenty of lesser-known stuff that perhaps contributes most to the full portrait. about an actress and a woman “strong but fragile, beautiful but at the same time ugly, independent but submissive, ignorant but well-read, generous but cruel.” We talk about it with Patricia Carrano, including the story of dinner with Magnani.
Patrizia, in the last pages of the book there is an important reflection: Anna Magnani’s stage heir is missing and her existence may be impossible. Even if then there is some comparison with Mariangela Melato.
“The comparison is only in something, you are right, and it concerns their diversity as interpreters. Both of them went from diversity to tragedy, which in the case of Melato faced something very difficult, like Racine. In the case of Anna Magnani, this added to the prejudices that weighed down on her, who was good in the theater, but, according to many, was not suitable for cinema. But she knew how to refute them. However, I don’t like the stereotype of Nannarella, the core of Rome. in general: Anna Magnani used the Roman dialect as a coloring when necessary, but this came from the rigor of the academy, and therefore she is a real actress, not a Roman one.”
Her son Luca Magnani has been repeating for many years: “Don’t forget about my mother.” He is right? Is Italy really mistreating his memory?
“He is right, because Italy ignored Magnani, treated him superficially, but this is a common evil among many of our other great people. We are not Frenchmen who cling to the greatness of our achievements; we have no capacity for memory. The proof of all this is the name of a street in honor of Magnani in Rome, at the end of Via Pezzana, in a place that leads nowhere, is not visited, there is neither a street nor a shop. For other greats such as Fellini, Sordi, Mastroianni, Gassman, they were their best efforts. Not for her, except that on the 50th anniversary of her death, the terrace of the Casa del Cinema was named after her, which seems like a classic patch.”
There is a wonderful description of an evening at dinner with Anna Magnani that leaves a very vivid image of her.
“I had the honor of having lunch with her, I was in Milan with my then partner, director Nanni Loy, it was the day of the film’s premiere. Detained awaiting trial with Sordi. Nanni suffers a lot from the premiere of a film, because by the reaction you will know whether it will go well or poorly and whether you will work afterwards. We were so worried that we went to see it at another cinema. .44 Magnum for Inspector Callaghan. and only after that we met for dinner with Anna Magnani. From her, who went to see Loy’s film with Sordi, we learned that she really liked the film, we found her sitting at the table, cutting a piece into very small pieces for her dog, who was waiting for her at the hotel. I felt a mixture of awe and magnetism for this woman, this very atypical diva with steely gray eyes that gave off a carefree but very charming aura that came from her uniqueness.”
What made it unique?
“She was a woman marked by her modernity, often far ahead of her time. No one combed her hair as wildly as she did, no one wore trousers as often as she did, and on the occasions when she did wear them, no one was as proud. about her wrinkles and dark circles under her eyes, although Magnani was very particular about her appearance. She was complex, like a prism, so much so that it took 50 testimonies collected in my book to really tell her story, and it is no coincidence that during For many years no one wanted to publish this book. She was perceived as a character from the past, associated with an era that had already passed and became obsolete.”
This destructive and restless force, as well as Magnani’s humor, comes from the wounds of the daughter abandoned by her father, as well as from the conflicting romantic stories with Alessandrini, Rossellini and then Serato.
“Anna Magnani has experienced a triple failure in her life since childhood. Her father did not recognize her, and for the woman born in 1908, this was a stigma she felt throughout her life. Her mother left and entrusted her to her aunts, and then at age 15 she joined her in Egypt to try to restore the relationship, but in vain. This sign of suffering led her to devote herself entirely to acting, although she did not belong to the aesthetic ideals of the time .Her unprecedented talent conquered everyone, but her character was very difficult and fickle. About men: she married the director Alessandrini, who was an adventurer, including in the sense of adultery. Rossellini’s betrayal was triple: as a woman, an actress and main character when he preferred Ingrid Bergman to her during Stromboli. Then Serato appears, with whom they give birth to Luca, born with infantile paralysis, which is another test for a mother who has already led such a special life.”
Won an Oscar for Best Actress for Tattooed rosebeing the first Italian to win the award was a good way to silence her detractors.
“Yes. Everyone said that she was ideal, great on stage, but not suitable for the big screen, the first person who told her about this was her husband, director Goffredo Alessandrini. But it was after that that her fall as an actress began. because with The sixties, in particular, Italian cinema would veer towards the great comedy, which gave us wonderful films, but they were all centered on male anti-heroes. And she was not an actress who could easily accept supporting roles. In the book I collect all the suggestions She did not deny anything until she appeared in one of his last small roles, still very beautiful, in Rome
And now, 50 years after her death: is there really no actress who could be considered her heir? For example, Sabrina Ferilli has been talked about several times.
“Ferilli was offered to star in a TV film in installments about the life of Anna Magnani, but she, always very careful in building her career, said it would be impossible without being overwhelmed by so many comparisons. No, Magnani and her modernity from the ancient soul is somewhere else. I think, for example, of the times Penélope Cruz said how Almodóvar advised her to take inspiration from Magnani when preparing her roles, or of three-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand, who said she considered Anna Magnani a beacon of his life and career.”