Bellissima on AllMovie

Anna Magnani's exuberant performance is the highlight of this class-based melodrama, as a tenement-dweller attempts to get her seven-year-old daughter into show business. Magnani's efforts run into considerable difficulty, disillusioning her to the point that when the offer finally comes, she rejects it outright. Despite the maudlin script, director Luchino Visconti works in some satirical touches and skillfully contrasts the gleaming film complex of the Cinecitta studios with the depressing slums which the principled Magnani chooses in the end. Acclaimed neorealist director Alessandro Biasetti makes an appearance, although this mawkish soap-opera is about as far from neorealism as it is possible to go in a dramatic film.