It was as if I had taken a time machine back to 1951. Sitting at the open theater of Tiberina Island in Rome, Anna Magnani's voice bounced off the ancient angles of this stunning roman spot. "Bellissima" is a timeless masterpiece. A rarity in Visconti's oeuvre. He puts all of his uncanny attention to detail to the service of Magnani's bombastic, tender, funny, extraordinary performance. Visconti knew how to bring the best in his actors. Even Maria Callas who, under Visconti's guidance, went from the greatest Opera singer to the greatest actress singing Opera. There are moments in "Bellissima" that can only be described as a love letter from Visconti to Magnani and vice versa. She has a few close ups that tells us how much love, respect and admiration existed between this two enormous artists. Look at her moments in the mirror, combing her hair naturally, debating under her breath the proper pronunciation of a word. She, not a conventional beauty, looks ravishing. The message about the dangers of immediate fame and fortune could have been written today.

Rip Specs

File Name .........................................: Bellissima.avi
File Size (in bytes) ............................: 1,467,908,096 bytes
Runtime ............................................: 1:49:56

Video Codec ...................................: XviD 1.1.2 Final
Frame Size ......................................: 640x480 (AR: 1.333)
FPS .................................................: 25.000
Video Bitrate ...................................: 1702 kb/s
Bits per Pixel ...................................: 0.222 bpp
B-VOP, N-VOP, QPel, GMC.............: [B-VOP], [N-VOP], [], []

Audio Codec ...................................: 0x0055 MPEG-1 Layer 3
Sample Rate ...................................: 48000 Hz
Audio Bitrate ...................................: 65 kb/s [1 channel(s)] VBR
No. of audio streams .......................: 1
 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043332/

Italian audio; English, French and Portuguese subtitles

Rip of the MoC DVD. Posted originally at KG by unclemeat, whom we thank