Anna Magnani and Mamma Roma are perfect examples of Italian neorealist cinema. Anna Magnani’s character represents many of the struggles that Italy was dealing with at the time. Or rather, she represents what Italian neorealist cinema meant at that time. She is a prostitute, she is poor, she is struggling to survive in post-war Italy. She fights tooth and nail to survive and do right by her son. Mamma Roma is disadvantaged, but she doesn’t let that stop her from trying. To me, Mamma Roma represents the struggle and sacrifices of motherhood and womanhood in many ways. It is unfortunate, but she must use her body to her advantage. She is shameless at times, which makes her seem all the more courageous and strong.

What I like about Anna Magnani’s acting style is the way she acts with her entire body. She reminds me of Bette Davis in some ways because of this. Magnani used her entire being to create her characters. She was extremely expressive with her body, which makes her appear very unique as an actress. Magnani took up as much space as possible on the screen. She was unapologetic in the ways that she used her body. It is clear to me that she had a background in theatre acting because of this. She projected and filled the mise-en-scene in a way similar to a trained theatre actor who used the Stanislavsky or Meisner methods. She acted with her entire being and took up space in a way that most actresses didn’t at the time. She took up as much space as possible while on screen, which made her very interesting and entertaining to watch. She made many gestures and acted with her entire being, instead of acting primarily with her face, as many actresses did at the time.

Another thing I like about Anna Magnani is that her characters are so unglamorized and unsexualized. Even while playing a prostitute, she doesn’t come off as if she were trying to look sexy. She played characters who were tough and gritty. he played characters who were shameless and unapologetic. She did not fall into the cliches of playing the typical beautiful woman character or the typical mother character. She did not act in any way as the idealized version of woman, as created by the male imagination for the male gaze. She did not need to be seen as beautiful, even though I personally think she was very beautiful. This is rare considering that Hollywood at the time, as well as many international cinema industries, only wanted actresses who were extremely beautiful to represent an idealized version of womanhood, such as Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn in many cases. Momma Roma is very interesting to me because of this, both as a character and as a film. having a female lead who did not live up to the expectations of the perfect woman, who did not fit the ideal beauty standards, was very rare at the time. It still is rare. Every time I watch a film, even now, I find myself noticing that the casting directors must have chosen the most beautiful, thinnest woman they could possibly find. I appreciate actresses like Anna Magnani for this reason, because she humanized her female characters instead of representing the male fantasy of womanhood.