Anna Magnani, her beauty rules always valid

Anna Magnani she disappeared on September 26, 1973, never disappearing. Popular legend has her of Egyptian origins but we know well that Nannarella is very Roman, born in the Porta Pia area. First the theatre, the vaudeville, then the cinema, the turning point. In this glossy world and (g)old Hollywood, manages to impose a new image of woman, dark-haired and with messy hair, brunette, dark circles under her eyes, intense gaze.

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And it is through her magnetic eyes that the next edition of the Rome Film Festival scheduled for 18 to 29 October will be revealed: on the fiftieth anniversary of her death Anna stands out on the poster of the event. In the photo, taken in 1956, the actress appears smiling and surrounded by photographers during the press conference which was called after winning the Oscar for The tattooed rose.

Anna Magnani more than half a century ago has imposed a more contemporary aesthetic than ever, based on the transformation of uniqueness into a strength, wonderfully described in his own words: «It takes you a whole life to like yourself, and then, you get to the end and you realize that you like yourself. That you like yourself because you are you, and because it took you your whole life to like yourself: yours. It takes you a whole lifetime to realize that whoever you had to like liked it, liked you… And who didn’t, I’m better off like this. You spend a lifetime counting your flaws and laughing about them, because I know how beautiful they are, because I know yours. Because without all those flaws, who would you be? Nobody. How many times have I looked at myself in the mirror and seen myself as ugly, terrifying. This big nose, these cheekbones and everything else. And when people told me on the street “beautiful Annì! See how good you are!” I didn’t understand and I thought to myself “beautiful what?”. Yet, after many years I understood them. It took me my whole life to like it. And now, when I hear myself say “beautiful Annì, how good you are!”, I laugh about it like a crazy person and I say it loudly, without being ashamed, out loud: “See you again, this blind man!””.

Diva anti-diva, unique, avant-garde, legendary, even in the field of beauty. Waiting to see the extraordinary Roman actress revived on the big screen in the first film about her by and with Monica Guerritore, _Magnani. The dawn of the next day, Here are his rules to remember forever.

Wrinkles as signs of beauty

«Leave all my wrinkles, don’t take away even one. I paid for them all dearly. It took me forever to make them!». The famous phrase that Anna Magnani said to her make-up artist several years ago is more relevant than ever, and seems to be ironic about the widespread fashion of stopping time, starting from make-up up to touch-ups or surgical interventions. The concept of beauty is associated, in the common imagination, with young age and smooth, elastic and luminous skin, but even the face of a mature person can express beauty: skin and wrinkles can tell our story and our evolution , which goes through different experiences, hardships, joys, pains, daily struggles and successes. How can we not define all this, beauty?

Messy hair and tidy emotions, what else?

Anna Magnani’s hairdresser, who knows him? In real life as well as in films, the actress generally appears disheveled, with hair never quite right or combed bourgeois, as if he always had something more important and demanding to take care of. Then we imagine her in front of the mirror running her hand through her hair to tidy it up. In the end, however, she shrugs and decides that they’re fine like this. The diva of Italian cinema is disconcertingly contemporary.

Take the right to please only yourself

I am the spontaneity of the anti-diva, the truth of his face marked by dark circles to project it into our time where not being too beautiful is an apparent guarantee of authenticity after the spread of tinkering. Anna has never masked marks and creases, she has never erased the traces of passion, tiredness, melancholy, ardent loves that all ended badly, out of pride in not hiding and the right to please only herself. She hasn’t been around for half a century and today more than ever there is a lot to learn from her.

The charm that seduces is what makes a flaw special

She who, of her own, had made it the mark of her authenticity. From dark circles under the eyes to irregular facial features to a pronounced nose. Everything spoke of himself, of intelligence, of sensitivity. Real, sagacious, brilliant woman. Genuine, frank, aristocratic and ragged, haughty and plebeian, she put on stage, in her life as in her acting, this genuineness of her that distinguished her throughout her life. And that she made her, to paraphrase one of her cinematic successes, Beautiful forever.

The pursuit of happiness is the meaning

«As I get older I don’t want to look younger. I want to seem happier.” Anna, decades before the concept of well-being and of beauty he carried forward the ideal chand being beautiful in a broader sense means being pleasant people, in harmony with oneself, able to give, to teach, to communicate and to be appreciated not only for their physical appearance but also for what is beautiful they convey about their being and their life. Youth is not the goal to pursue, but happiness is what we must aspire to. A great lesson to keep in mind.