Giulietta Masina Movies
Best known in conjunction with her work under the direction of husband Federico Fellini, Giulietta Masina was among the most acclaimed international actresses of the postwar era; a skilled, button-eyed comedienne equally capable of delivering poignant, emotionally charged dramatic performances, her accomplishments were often overshadowed by the groundbreaking achievements of her more celebrated spouse. Born February 22, 1921, in San Giorgio di Piano, Italy, Masina initially studied literature but later turned to acting; while attending university in Rome, she joined a drama ensemble and later signed on with the Ateneo Theatre Group. At the same time, Fellini was working as a radio scriptwriter, and based on her photographs, he cast Masina in Cico e Pallina, a series about a newlywed couple. They fell in love while working on the program and were married in 1943. Masina then retired from performing, but returned to the stage several years later.By the late '40s, Fellini had become a well-known figure within Italian cinematic circles, and his connections helped Masina break into films; after briefly appearing in Roberto Rossellini's 1946 picture Paisà, two years later she starred in Alberto Lattuada's Senza Pieta, a performance which earned her a Silver Ribbon (Italy's most prominent motion-picture award) as Best Supporting Actress. Masina's next performance was in Fellini's 1951 feature debut Luci del Varietà. After appearing with the likes of Vittorio de Sica and Aldo Fabrizi in Cameriera Bella Presenza Offresi..., she reunited with her husband on his 1952 effort Lo Sceicco Bianco. Under Rossellini, Masina next appeared opposite Ingrid Bergman in Europa 51, but her international breakthrough came in the 1954 Fellini classic La Strada; cast as the brutalized lover of a violent circus strongman (Anthony Quinn), her much-acclaimed, star-making performance helped spur the film to a Best Foreign Language Academy Award.
The couple next collaborated on 1955's Il Bidone, followed in 1957 by Le Notti di Cabiria, which won Masina Best Actress honors at Cannes. After 1958's Fortunella, she starred with Anna Magnani in Nella Citta l'Inferno. Julien Duvivier's massive international production La Grande Vie followed in 1959, but when the film failed both financially and critically, Masina's career was irreparably damaged. Apart from a small role in 1963's Landru, her only prominent performance during the first half of the decade came in Fellini's 1965 fantasy Giulietta Degli Spiriti. A cameo in 1967's Scusi, Lei E Favorevole O Contrario? followed, as did a supporting performance in Lina Wertmuller's Non Stuzzicate La Zanzara. In 1969, Masina finally made her English-language debut in the Katherine Hepburn vehicle The Madwoman of Chaillot. Apart from occasional TV work, she did not reappear prior to 1985, starring in Fellini's Ginger e Fred as well as in Perinbaba. Aujourd'hui Peut-Etre... (1991) signalled Masina's final screen appearance; she died on March 23, 1994, less than six months after the passing of Fellini. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1949
Filmed in 1948 as Senza Pieta, this Alberto Lattuada-directed effort came to America the following year as Without Pity. The film's sensitive subject matter caused problems in distribution and approval; Lattuada was never known to shirk from a sociopolitical statement, even when it meant loss of revenue overseas. The plot is based on an actual postwar dilemma: in Northern Italy, dozens of black American GIs chose to go AWOL rather than return to a racially divided United States. John Kitzmiller plays an occupation soldier named Jerry, who decides to remain in Italy when he falls in love with a blonde, Caucasian local girl named Angela (Carla Del Poggio). Reviewers in 1949 felt that Lattuada exercised poor taste in depicting the interracial romance: while these scenes cannot realistically be described as offensive when seen today, they are still quite frank by 1940s standards. A "regular" in Italian neorealist films, Michigan-born black actor John Kitzmiller went on to win a Cannes Film Festival award for his performance in 1957's Sergeant Jim; James Bond fans will remember Kitzmiller as "Quarrel" in Dr. No (1962). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carla Del Poggio, John Kitzmiller, (more)
- 1950
Behind Closed Shutters originally went into Italian movie houses under the title Persiane Chiuse. Eleanora Rossi Drago plays a young girl in search of her missing sister. She wanders into the more dangerous sections of Genoa, particularly the seedy waterfront. Here she meets several Everyman-type characters, each representing a separate sin or virtue. Featured in the cast is Giuletta Masina, later the star of such Fellini productions as La Strada, Nights of Cabiria and Juliet of the Spirits. Behind Closed Shutters finds director Luigi Comencini betwixt and between the neorealism of his earliest films and the commercialism of his later endeavors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Massimo Girotti, Giulietta Masina, (more)
Federico Fellini's directorial debut (co-directed with veteran Alberto Lattuada), Luci del Varietà is a bittersweet drama about a bunch of misfits in a traveling vaudeville troupe. The group of actors, dancers, and performers struggle to make it from town to town, playing to minimal crowds. Their comedic leader, Checco Dal Monte (Peppino De Filippo) just wants his act to be a success. His longtime sweetheart, Melina Amour (Fellini's wife Giulietta Masina), keeps the business end of things together and saves up money with plans of buying a business. Stumbling into one small town for another show, Checco meets beauty queen Lily (Carla Del Poggio) and puts her in the show as a dancer. When it appears that her sex appeal is drawing in large crowds of enthusiastic spectators, she quickly becomes the star of the show. Checco soon becomes infatuated with her, casting aside Melina and breaking up the troupe in order to put on a showcase for Lily instead. The loyal group of outcast performers are left without a leader, while star-eyed Lily proves to be relentless in her quest for fame. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- 1951
This episodic Italian comedy follows the misadventures of housemaid Maria (Elsa Merlini). Her various employers include a salesman (Aldo Fabrizi) who values peace and quiet, but never gets it, and a vainglorious actor (Vittorio de Sica) with woman trouble. Through it all, Maria survives with a little help from her friends, including best pal Ermelinda, played by the future star of Stromboli and Juliet of the Spirits, Giulette Masina. Among the screenwriters for this film was Masina's husband Federico Fellini. Cameriera Bella, Presenza Offresi marked the return to the screen of Elsa Merlini, one of the most popular personalities of the prewar Italian cinema. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elsa Merlini, Vittorio De Sica, (more)
- 1952
Only a few of the films that grew from the notorious liaison between actress Ingrid Bergman and director Roberto Rossellini were truly worthy of their talents. One such was the Italian-made Europa '51. Playing a character far older than herself, Bergman portrays a society woman whose life is in ruins after her son's suicide. Attempting to give her life some purpose, she takes the advice of a leftist friend, and begins working with the ill and destitute of Rome. Her insensitive husband Alexander Knox finds Bergman's charitable activities distasteful; when the opportunity presents itself, he has her committed to a mental institution. By the time Europa '51 was released in the US in 1954, its title -- and much of its political ideology -- had been outdated. The film was pared from 118 to 110 minutes for US consumption, and retitled The Greatest Love. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ingrid Bergman, Alexander Knox, (more)
The White Sheik (Lo Sceicco Bianco), Fellini's first solo flight as director, is a gentle lampoon of the idolatry heaped upon movie stars. An impressionable young bride, Wanda (Brunella Bovo) accompanies her husband Ivan (Leopoldo Trieste) on a dull honeymoon, full of meetings with family members and the papal father. Bovo fantasizes over matinee idol Fernando Rivoli, AKA The White Sheik (Alberto Sordi), the hero of a photo strip comic. She repeatedly drifts away from her husband and back, in periodic attempts to find The Sheik, ultimately repairing to the location site where Sordi's latest film, The White Shiek, is in production. Her inevitable disillusionment with the vainglorious Sordi is intercut with her husband's comic (and desperate) attempts to explain his wife's absences at family gatherings to his disgruntled relatives. After a comically inept suicide attempt, Bovo and Trieste are reunited. Featured in the cast is Fellini's wife Giuletta Masina as a prostitute named Cabiria, who'd be given a vehicle of her own, Nights of Cabiria, in 1955. Based on "an idea" by Michelangelo Antonioni, The White Sheik was the main inspiration for Gene Wilder's The World's Greatest Lover (1977). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alberto Sordi, Brunella Bovo, (more)
- 1953
In this Italian melodrama, three Roman prostitutes suddenly find themselves on the streets when the city informs them that their brothel is to be destroyed. The story chronicles what happens to each of them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1954
This romantic Italian anthology film is comprised of six episodes that deal with a century of love. The first vignette, "Garibaldin," set in 1854, follows a rebellious priest who attempts to sway others to his beliefs. "Pendolin" examines a philandering wife's affair with a hotel porter who really only wanted to give her her lost earrings. "Purification" follows an honorable soldier who refuses to convey his commanding officer's last words to his unworthy girlfriend. In the fourth episode, "Golden Wedding," an elderly couple celebrate their wedding anniversary and discover mutual disillusionment. "The Last Ten Minutes" examines the efforts of a priest and a condemned man to conceal the truth about the man's crime from his wife. Finally, in "Amore," which is set in 1954, a father tries to persuade his daughter's husband to stay married to her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Acclaimed Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini drew on his own circus background for the 1954 classic La Strada. Set in a seedy travelling carnival, this symbolism-laden drama revolves around brutish strongman Zampano (Anthony Quinn), his simple and servile girlfriend Gelsomina (Giulietta Masina, Fellini's wife), and clown/aerialist Matto (Richard Basehart). Appalled at Zampano's insensitive treatment of Gelsomina, the gentle-natured Matto invites her to run off with him; but Gelsomina, like a faithful pet, refuses to leave the strong man's side. Eventually Zampano's volcanic temper erupts once too often, leading to tragic consequences. Written by Fellini and Tullio Pinelli and scored by Nino Rota, La Strada was the winner of the first official Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film, awarded in 1956. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giulietta Masina, Anthony Quinn, (more)
Swindle and The Swindlers are both English-language titles for 1955's Il Bidone, a lesser-known effort from Federico Fellini. Broderick Crawford, Richard Basehart, and Franco Fabrizi play a trio of con artists who victimize the Italian bourgeoisie (who are shown to be no better than the crooks). Giueletta Masina (Fellini's wife), who had previously costarred with Richard Basehart in La Strada, here plays Basehart's wife. Humphrey Bogart had been intended for the role played by Broderick Crawford; one wonders how Crawford's self-deprecating curtain speech about the hollowness of his existence would have played in Bogart's hands. Swindle was not released to the US until nine years after its completion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Broderick Crawford, Richard Basehart, (more)
Nights of Cabiria opens with Cabiria (Giulietta Masina) and her boyfriend playfully embracing by the seaside -- and then he shoves her into the water and steals her purse. Cabiria is revived by some local boys and runs off by herself, shouting. What follows is a series of similarly humiliating episodes, in which the defiantly positive prostitute Cabiria is hurt, but never broken. She gets picked up by movie star Alberto Lazzati (Amedeo Nazzari, doing a self-parody) and taken to his palatial estate. However, his mistress shows up and Cabiria gets locked in the bathroom all night with the dog. She then joins her fellow prostitutes for a blessing from the Virgin Mary, and ends up getting drunk and wandering into a local show, where the hypnotist invites her to join him on-stage. The audience heckles her, and she toughly reminds them of her independence and that she owns her own house. There she meets Oscar (François Perier), an accountant who romantically pursues her. Despite the warnings of her fellow prostitute friend, Wanda (Franca Marzi), she prepares to sell all her belongings and accept Oscar's proposal of marriage. After being ruthlessly taken advantage of once again, Cabiria walks off alone with a smirk of hope. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giulietta Masina, Amedeo Nazzari, (more)
- 1958
This clever melodrama from director Renato Castellani stars Anna Magnani as a hardbitten prostitute whose immorality rubs off on a naive woman (Giulietta Masina) in a women's prison. Taking the innocent Masina under her wing, Magnani corrupts her, but is secretly touched by her kind heart. On Magnani's advice, Masina makes a bargain with Adonis (Alberto Sordi), who framed her for burglary, promising silence in exchange for part of the loot. She is acquitted, but Magnani's lessons have changed Masina's life for the worse, and she returns to prison as a garishly sleazy hooker. Magnani is horrified, having gone through some psychological changes in the opposite direction herself. Renato Salvatori, Cristina Gajoni, and Milly Monti also appear in this entertaining Italian/French potboiler adapted by Castellani and Suso Cecchi D'Amico from Isa Mari's 1953 novel Roma, Via delle Mantellate. Several versions exist, running 110, 98, and 85 minutes. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anna Magnani, Giulietta Masina, (more)
- 1959
Beginning with the declassé premise of this ostensible, unconvincing slice-of-life comedy -- that the heroine's overriding objective in life is to find THE man for her -- French director Julien Duvivier already has problems. Doris (Giulietta Masina) is a woman not prone to deep thinking, whose quest for the perfect mate leads her to break apart friends' relationships while trying out "their" men. She also goes in and out of dependent relationships with men in which she essentially lives off their largesse. Neither of these types of sexual-romantic adventures are very commendable, and that among other factors, takes away much of the comic sheen meant to liven these exploits. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giulietta Masina, Agnes Fink, (more)
Juliet of the Spirits is a fantastical showcase for Federico Fellini's vibrant imagery, starring his wife, Giulietta Masina, as the titular leading character. Juliet is a wealthy housewife who constantly fears her husband, Giorgio (Mario Pisu), is cheating on her. While she yearns for a peaceful intimate evening on the night of their 15th anniversary, the egotistical Giorgio has forgotten about it and instead arrives home with his eccentric friends. After a trip to a séance, Juliet is haunted by images from the spirit world, including obsessions from her past involving religion and her late relatives. With her sisters and mother prying into her life, Juliet seems to be seeking an inner peace amidst all the sexual temptations surrounding her. She meets her neighbor, Suzy (Sandra Milo), a showy pleasure-seeker who lives in a sensual playhouse. It appears that all of Juliet's family, friends, and fantasies demand that she loosen up and embrace sexual freedom, yet she remains chaste and dowdy, lamenting over her unfaithful husband. The reasons for Juliet's repression are not clearly defined by the narrative, despite glimpses into her supposed imagination. Forced to endure the constant bombardment of sexually charged imaginings, the demure Juliet retreats on her own. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giulietta Masina, Mario Pisu, (more)
- 1969
Taken from the popular play by Jean Giraudoux, The Madwoman Of Chaillot has an international all-star cast, but the final result falls short despite the talents of the celebrated thespians. The madwoman in question is the extremely eccentric Countess Aurelia (Katherine Hepburn). Roderick (Richard Chamberlain) is the peace-loving activist who, along with a local rag picker (Danny Kaye), warns the Countess of a plot to destroy the city. A quartet of villains led by the Chairman (Yul Brynner) are after the oil reserves that bubble under the water supply. Along with the Broker (Charles Boyer), the Commissar (Oscar Homolka), and the Prospector (Donald Pleasence), the evil developers plan to secure the oil rights to the region with or without the consent of the unsuspecting public. The Countess invites Josephine (Dame Edith Evans) to judge the villains, who are locked in the Countess's cellar for their crimes against the people of Paris in this lethargic film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katharine Hepburn, Charles Boyer, (more)
- 1985
This version of an old fairy tale is the second in 20 years (there was a 1954 West German film on the same subject) and is a charming rendering of Frau Holle, who sits on high and watches over humankind and the seasons and one day adopts young Jakob as her assistant. Jakob was part of a travelling circus obliterated by an avalanche and owes his new life to Frau Holle. But back on earth, a certain Elizabeth is being persecuted by an evil stepmother and two sisters, and Jakob is intent on turning that situation around. To achieve his aims, he becomes mortal and returns to earth -- but now Death, taking on the form of a decrepit hag, stalks Jakob. It is up to Frau Holle to save her former ward and see that his mission is completed.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giulietta Masina, Valerie Kaplanova, (more)
Director Federico Fellini gently lampoons the world of small-time show business in Ginger and Fred. Giulietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni star as Amelia Bonetti and Pippo Botticella, a onetime celebrity song-and-dance team. Having risen to fame with a dancing act where they recreated the acts of Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire (hoping to become the Fred and Ginger of Italy), Amelia and Pippo parted company to pursue their separate lives. Neither one was particularly successful in other fields of endeavor, so when after many years Amelia is offered a guest-star gig on a TV variety show, she jumps at the chance. She also seeks out her former partner, Pippo, who may have looked like Astaire in his younger days, but now....The overall good cheer of the film was dampened when the real Ginger Rogers sued the distributors of Ginger and Fred for "defamation of character." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marcello Mastroianni, Giulietta Masina, (more)
- 1991
Bertille (Giuletta Masina) has a lovely home in the French countryside -- and plenty of grab-happy children and relatives who want a piece of the inheritance they expect from her. That's why, even though she's not their favorite relative (nor they hers) they all appear at one final reunion on the estate before she sells it. However, truth will out, and in little ways and large ones, the disagreeable relatives show cracks in their "let's make nice" facade. Meanwhile, Bertille is hoping that her youngest son might appear, since the event was advertised in the local papers. He has been in prison for the past dozen or so years on a bank-robbery charge. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Giulietta Masina, Véronique Silver, (more)
