monyx Warrior is ready to sign his first film for the cinema. The challenge that the actress and now director has decided to undertake is to revive the memory of the immense Anna Magnaniwhose 50th anniversary will occur on 26 September 2023.
Monica Guerritore and “Magnani’s eyes”
Monica Guerritore decided to talk in depth for the first time about this new project of his in yesterday’s episode, January 1st, of Sunday In. The presenter Mara Venier immediately wanted to understand where the idea of making a film about Anna Magnani came from.
«I am touched because it is the first day of the year, you are a special woman, a very strong woman, a courageous and very generous woman. Your program is very popular and today you bring Anna Magnani back to her audience. This is the most important thing » Guerritore told her, thanking her for her invitation.
And he explained. «It’s true that I met Anna Magnani some time ago, like all Italian actresses meet her. But I met her when she interpreted The she-wolf. I always had an image of her in front of me in my room, with her eyes looking at me. The eyes of her when she does The she-wolf. Those eyes are sometimes in the film. They are Magnani’s eyes. And I’ve been thinking about her ever since.”
Monica Guerritore at the Nastri d’Argento Grandi Serie 2022, on 4 June 2022 in Naples. Credit: Daniele Venturelli/Daniele Venturelli / Getty Images
“Through his characters, Italy’s dignity has been restored to the world”
Among Anna Magnani’s many merits, there is certainly a very strong one, according to Monica Guerritore. «His strength, his dignity, his character have given Italy back to the world through his image. Rossellini said it. Italy humiliated, Italy won… Through the characters of him – that in Rome open cityfirst – Italy’s dignity in the world has been restored,” he explained. “But his strength hid something… A difficult life».
About this, Monica Guerritore wanted to remember with Mara Venier the moment Anna Magnani won the Oscar as Best Leading Actress for The Rose Tattoo (she was the first non-English speaking actress to receive this award). «My film is a point of view, an imaginary biography where I try to understand what are the reasons for some things that then appeared to the public. On March 21, 1956 she wins the Oscar. But she doesn’t wait at home, next to her phone that hasn’t rang for a long time .. She goes out, puts biscuits in her pockets and goes to feed her cats: she’s a cat lady» he said.
«You wait walking through Rome. And at dawn it is precisely the people of Rome who announce to her that she has won the Oscar. It is the people who bring it home. That dawn should be the beginning of a life that was finally easy and instead it’s the beginning of his end, because he won too much and won too late. She was almost 50 years old… ».
Prejudice about female directors
Filming of Anna will start in the first days of June. And, in addition to being a director, Monica Guerritore she is also a screenwriter. «I wrote the screenplay because I had it inside. I knew I wanted to leave from that night, where she does the sleeping diva».
Monica Guerritore’s commitment in love is also meeting some prejudices. “I have to fight for the fact that an actress can also direct. I have been directing for a long time for the theater… For a male colleague it would be different. You have to give your credentials a little, somehow…».
And with respect to her imminent debut as a film director, Monica Guerritore was joking. «I’m happy to be an elderly first film». And he confessed. «We are starting to sell the film abroad and let’s try to have the support of the Ministrysmall and medium enterprises… Italy must support this project because Italy and Anna Magnani. So you have to support it.”
Finally a commitment. «He I will read the script in theatres, schools, universities, wherever they call me, with free admission. I want the public – even the theater audience – to approach this work which will later become the film step by step. He must fall in love with her».
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