Favorite movie star - Anna Magnani

My favorite movie star is Anna Magnani. She embodied the bare-faced, post-war honesty of neorealism and became a symbol of the city of Rome itself. (Tennessee Williams called her the spirit of Italy) According to film critic Robin Wood, Magnani's "persona as a great actress is built, not on transformation, but emotional authenticity. . . she does not portray characters but expresses genuine emotions. Her style does not display the more obvious attributes of the female star, with neither her face or physical makeup being considered "beautiful", wrote Wood. However, she possesses a "remarkably expressive face, " and for American audiences, at least, she represents "what Hollywood had consistently failed to produce: 'reality'". She was the atypical star, the “nonglamorous human being", as her genuine style of acting became a "rejection of glamour” A year before her death, she had turned down the roles offered. Her refusal was interpreted by critics in different ways: some wrote that this black-and-white actress, who had never known the nuances of good and evil, love and hate, could not assimilate the aesthetics of colour cinema; Some have stubbornly argued that Magnani does not want to play grandma, taking care of his classic image… but, as the actress once said, she was proud of her wrinkles, and also said that she does not want to participate in cheap Italian comedies, that she prefers the genre of tragedy. The thing that I love about her is that despite her longing for tragic faces, Anna Magnani never created a distance between her characters and the audience. She balances her greatness with humour and simplicity. Critics say Anna Magnani never played in front of the camera - she was embodying herself.