Anna Magnani

When Anna Magnani achieved international renown in Roberto Rossellini's "Open City," a raw, jagged, shot-on-the-run panorama of Rome on the eve of liberation, Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth were reigning queens of America's box office. By dizzying contrast, here was Magnani, playing an ill-fated, pregnant mother, with her hair a mess and those circles under her eyes that were to deepen with the years to become as much a trademark as her volcanic personality and her great talent.

Even after a painstaking restoration which presents them in the best condition seen for decades, the films in Roberto Rossellini's "War Trilogy" have at times the battered quality of found footage, an appropriate state given their focus on the physical and social destruction of the Second World War. In "Rome, Open City" (1945), "Paisan" (1946) and "Germany Year Zero" (1948) -- packaged together and recently released as a new set from the Criterion Collection -- the vacant streets and blasted buildings of post-fascist Europe take center stage, often to the exclusion of the movie's ostensible protagonists.

"VOLCANIC" is the word for Anna Magnani (1908-73), an icon of international cinema whose renown in the U.S. commenced with Roberto Rossellini's "Open City" (1945), a raw, jagged, shot-on-the-run panorama of Rome on the eve of liberation that also introduced American audiences to the power of postwar Italian neorealism.

"VOLCANIC" is the word for Anna Magnani (1908-73), an icon of international cinema whose renown in the U.S. commenced with Roberto Rossellini's "Open City" (1945), a raw, jagged, shot-on-the-run panorama of Rome on the eve of liberation that also introduced American audiences to the power of postwar Italian neorealism.

A great Neo-realist double feature: the first is Roberto Rossellini's raw epic of the liberation of Rome featuring Anna Magnani (left); the second is Vittorio de Sica's quietly powerful study of old age with Carlo Battisti (right). (KCET Saturday at 9 p.m., 10:45 p.m.)

"The Fugitive Kind." Warner. $19.95. Tennessee Williams reworked this material many times, but his screenplay here comes across almost as self-parody. A Dionysian young stud-guitarist in a snakeskin jacket (Marlon Brando, looking embarrassed much of the time) wanders into a repressed Southern small town and stirs the passions of a fiery storekeeper (Anna Magnani) and a wanton rich girl (Joanne Woodward).

Rosa Von Praunheim's 60-minute "Dolly, Lotte and Maria" (at the Nuart today) introduces us to three delightful and remarkable women who began as dancers and who fled Hitler's Germany to make new lives in America. Petite, redheaded Dolly Haas was once a top UFA star, a radiant comedienne as well as a singer and dancer, who continued her career on stage in the United States but eventually became content with being the wife of theatrical caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.

Even after a painstaking restoration which presents them in the best condition seen for decades, the films in Roberto Rossellini's "War Trilogy" have at times the battered quality of found footage, an appropriate state given their focus on the physical and social destruction of the Second World War. In "Rome, Open City" (1945), "Paisan" (1946) and "Germany Year Zero" (1948) -- packaged together and recently released as a new set from the Criterion Collection -- the vacant streets and blasted buildings of post-fascist Europe take center stage, often to the exclusion of the movie's ostensible protagonists.

From Thanksgiving until Christmas week, we are going to be inundated with the Big Ones. Studios, which suspect--and perhaps not without foundation--that motion-picture academy voters' memories barely stretch back to Labor Day, invariably beef up the year-end with flossy star entries they hope will find their way onto nominating ballots in January.

A great Neo-realist double feature: the first is Roberto Rossellini's raw epic of the liberation of Rome featuring Anna Magnani (left); the second is Vittorio de Sica's quietly powerful study of old age with Carlo Battisti (right). (KCET Saturday at 9 p.m., 10:45 p.m.)

Rosa Von Praunheim's 60-minute "Dolly, Lotte and Maria" (at the Nuart today) introduces us to three delightful and remarkable women who began as dancers and who fled Hitler's Germany to make new lives in America. Petite, redheaded Dolly Haas was once a top UFA star, a radiant comedienne as well as a singer and dancer, who continued her career on stage in the United States but eventually became content with being the wife of theatrical caricaturist Al Hirschfeld.

When Anna Magnani achieved international renown in Roberto Rossellini's "Open City," a raw, jagged, shot-on-the-run panorama of Rome on the eve of liberation, Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth were reigning queens of America's box office. By dizzying contrast, here was Magnani, playing an ill-fated, pregnant mother, with her hair a mess and those circles under her eyes that were to deepen with the years to become as much a trademark as her volcanic personality and her great talent.

From Thanksgiving until Christmas week, we are going to be inundated with the Big Ones. Studios, which suspect--and perhaps not without foundation--that motion-picture academy voters' memories barely stretch back to Labor Day, invariably beef up the year-end with flossy star entries they hope will find their way onto nominating ballots in January.

"The Fugitive Kind." Warner. $19.95. Tennessee Williams reworked this material many times, but his screenplay here comes across almost as self-parody. A Dionysian young stud-guitarist in a snakeskin jacket (Marlon Brando, looking embarrassed much of the time) wanders into a repressed Southern small town and stirs the passions of a fiery storekeeper (Anna Magnani) and a wanton rich girl (Joanne Woodward).

Peter Shaw, 84, a producer and former agent who was the longtime husband of actress Angela Lansbury, died Jan. 29 at his Brentwood home of congestive heart failure. Born in Reading, England, Shaw served in the British army during World War II. After his discharge, Shaw was signed to a contract by MGM Studios, where he met Lansbury. The couple were married in London in 1949. He worked as an agent for William Morris, representing Robert Mitchum, Katharine Hepburn and Anna Magnani.

Apparently Sophia Loren didn't get the memo that she is a septuagenarian and a grandmother because at 76 she is as stunning as when she first arrived in Hollywood more than 50 years ago. Sitting on a comfy sofa in the lobby of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Samuel Goldwyn Theater, Loren remains the epitome of glamour and graciousness. Dressed in a red pantsuit with red boots, Loren is svelte with barely a line on her face. Her voice is as distinctively earthy, her accent as thickly Italian as ever — she even apologizes when she can only think of a certain word in her native tongue.