60 minutes, 2019
Director : Enrico Cerasuolo (Italy)
Production : Les Films du Poisson (France), Zenit Arti Audiovisive (Italy), Arte (France) in collaboration with Rai Com (Italy), in association with Istituto Luce Cinecittà (Italy)

Who can forget Anna Magnani’s face in “Rome, Open City”, running desperately to prevent her husband’s arrest? Magnificent and ordinary, comical and tragic, this immense actress, emblem of neorealism, revolutionized how women are represented. As volcanic in life as she was on screen, she impressed Hollywood with the power of her acting, becoming the first Italian to win an Oscar. Using material from original and private archives, particularly from the collections of the Istituto Luce and RAI, and with extracts from television shows, interviews with the biggest names of the time, and of course clips from remarkable films, the documentary plunges us into the golden age of Italian cinema. And traces the career of an exceptional actress who has marked cinema history.

Enrico Cerasuolo was born in Venice, in 1968. He graduated in Political Science and Contemporary History and has been chair of Zenit Arti Audiovisive since the company’s creation in 1992. Writer and director of documentary films, he has written and directed films which have been broadcast on several television channels in different countries and won awards at Italian and European festivals. His principal films are: “Last Call” (2013 52 / 90 minutes, ZDF ARTE, Zenit, Skoftland); “De Garibaldi à Berlusconi” (2011, 118 minutes, ARTE France, Les Films d’Ici, Zenit); “La Face cachée de la Peur” (2008 52 minutes, ARTE France, Les Films d’Ici, Zenit), etc.

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