Giulietta Masina x4 – Neorealism, autofiction and fantasy
Despite the fact that Giulietta Masina is without a doubt one of the most notorious actresses in Italian cinema, her name is associated almost exclusively with the auteurism of her husband, Federico Fellini. There are too few documents to discuss in more depth who Masina really was - apart from the “muse”, the “inspiration” and so on. Looking back, however, I think the films in which Masina interpreted some remarkable parts (there are seven of them, if we don't take into account a cameo in Paisa, by Roberto Rossellini) show a type of Chaplin-inspired performance that is less studied/played and more improvised; deriving from silent cinema, Masina relied more on facial expression and less on words - a transparent innocence, which holds on any hint of illusion in a generally rotten world; almost all of her roles coagulate around the “single woman” tragic leitmotif - no matter how much she grows up, she remains a big-eyed child who happily inhales the world around her. Fellini's cinema derives from the persona built by Masina - all of his heroes live with one foot on the ground and the other one floating around in a dreamland.
Journalist and film critic, with a master's degree in film critics. Collaborates with Scena9, Acoperișul de Sticlă, FILM and FILM Menu magazines. For Films in Frame, she brings the monthly top of films and writes the monthly editorial Panorama, published on a Thursday. In her spare time, she retires in the woods where she pictures other possible lives and flying foxes.
