L’amore **** (1948, Anna Magnani, Federico Fellini, Peparuolo, Amelia Robert) – Classic Movie Review 8798

Director Roberto Rossellini’s 1948 black and white double bill drama L’Amore [Ways of Love] [Woman] finds him leaving his usual area of neo-realism far behind for this heated, actress’s tour-de-force feature with two distinct episodes.

One, taken from Jean Cocteau’s play The Human Voice, is about a frantic woman desperately trying to talk her lover over the telephone into staying with her. Federico Fellini is credited for the screen story. The other (The Miracle), based on a novel by Ramón del Valle-Inclán, is about a homeless woman called Nannina who thinks she is going to have the Messiah’s child after being seduced by a man she encounters on a hillside whom she believes is St Joseph, Il vagabondo (Federico Fellini).

L’Amore is a highly impressive, strongly emotive film that was censored in America for being allegedly blasphemous. But it is best remembered as a showcase for two spectacular Anna Magnani performances, and it is interesting too to see the young Fellini as an actor.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8798

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com