Actress Monica Guerritore makes her directorial debut in Anna, presented at the 20th Rome Film Festival Monday, telling what she calls a "powerful story" about Italian screen icon Anna Magnani.
The film starts on the night of March 21, 1956, when Nannarella became the first non native English speaking woman to win an Oscar, for The Rose Tattoo, a piece Tennessee Williams had written especially for her.
She is shown waiting through the night in the alleys and squares of Rome, among her beloved cats and the people who love her.
At her side is a young woman who will become her agent, Carol Levi.
The bold directorial debut of 67-year-old Rome-born Guerritore, who also wrote the screenplay and stars as Magnani, also stars Tommaso Ragno as Roberto Rossellini and Lucia Mascino as Carol Levi.
The somewhat theatrical film, which premiered Monday at the Rome Film Festival (in the Grand Public section) and is in theaters from November 6th with Notorious Pictures, unfolds within the house of 'Nannarella', always prey to fury and generosity, but also revolves around her Cinecittà and the pain of her sick son and the broken relationship with Roberto Rossellini, a true thorn in her heart.
"Why this film? Because we think we know everything about her, at least her professional side, and these things can't be touched because they are works of genius that exist in our imagination, but we really know nothing about the life that flows beneath her river," says Guerritore.
"And I approached that part like a deep-sea diver, trying to understand what lies behind her particular gaze." What struck her about Magnani? "In 1973," says the actress-director, "in Carol Levi's office, she had just died, an image of her that I carried with me. It supported me and showed me the way to do my job throughout my life.
"She was also a woman who was probably close to my way of being and thinking, and in that path of hers I nestled and found my inspiration. Her way of being a little brusque, sometimes a bit of a pain in the ass.
"Something that happens to women when they know that their experience must count and you don't always have to ask permission." And finally, she says in her director's notes: "I don't want to make a great film, I don't want to dazzle with special effects.
By following in her footsteps and breathing her heart, I'm making the audience share in the battles he fought and that we still fight." The film, a LuminaMGR, Masi Film and Mediaflow production with Rai Cinema in participation with Dea Film, features the following cast: Roberto De Francesco (Ferruccio Ferrara), Beatrice Grannò (Carol Levi - young), Edoardo Purgatori (Luca Magnani - adult), Alvia Reale (Ada), Nicolò Giacalone (Vieri Niccoli), Francesca Cellini (Suso Cecchi D'Amico), Diego Migeni (Antonello Trombadori), Luca Lazzareschi (Carlo Ponti), Antonio Zavattieri (Alberto Moravia), Matteo Cirillo (Federico Fellini), Stefano Rossi Giordani (Sergio Amidei), Massimiliano Vado (Indro Montanelli), Giampiero Judica (Tennessee Williams), Tania Bambaci (the Redhead) and Lucia Lavia (Ingrid Bergman).
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