Bellissima (1951) review

In Italy, producers set up a contest to select one little girl (between the ages of 6 and 8) to appear in a new movie, which gets nurse Maddalena (Anna Magnani) - who's enamored with the cinema - in a frenzy, doing everything she can (short of using her body) to get her daughter the role.  This is not the type of project one would associate with Visconti, but it's quite good and is relevant even today: "Show Moms" are still out there primping up their daughters and trying to live vicariously through them, and showbiz people can still be cruel and demeaning (Maddalena flips out when she catches the movie people laughing at her daughter in a screening room).  Appreciation for this is dependent on how one views Magnani's bombastic character, rambling on and manipulating people everywhere she goes ... at least opposed to her little girl, who doesn't say much and only wants to go to school.