LUCY BOLTON

When Magnani met Monroe: National Icons in New York

In New York City, on May 13^th, 1958, Anna Magnani presented Marilyn Monroe with the David Di Donatello award for Best Foreign Actress, for Monroe’s performance in The Prince and the Showgirl (directed by Laurence Olivier, 1957). The ceremony took place at the Italian Cultural Institute.

Footage of the ceremony exists on YouTube, and shows warmth and affection between the two women, but the film excerpt shows Magnani as glowing with charm and confidence, whereas Monroe looks dull-skinned and overwhelmed, with nervous incomprehension and over bleached hair. Monroe seems tired and weary, whereas Magnani exudes strength and vitality, helping Monroe to say a few words in Italian to the boisterous crowd. Magnani holds a cigarette, as she whispers Italian phrases to Monroe affectionately for her to repeat

This paper will closely analyse this footage of the two stars meeting, and examine each woman at this particular stage in her career. The star image of Magnani in America is riding high, following her Oscar for her first Hollywood film, The Rose Tattoo (1955, directed by Daniel Mann, written especially for Magnani by Tennessee Williams), and the filming of The Fugitive Kind, directed by Sidney Lumet and co-starring Marlon Brando. Monroe, however, had never recovered from the traumas on the set of The Prince and the Showgirl, and has suffered ever since due to the loss of the friendship and support of Milton Greene, the collapse of her production company and the disintegration of her marriage to Arthur Miller.

Through analysing the careers, star images and appearances of these icons at this particular moment, this paper will argue that this occasion at the Italian Cultural Institute reflects upon the star trajectories of the two icons in terms of their nationalities, star personas and industry status. ‘When Magnani met Monroe’ reveals so much through this clip, barely two minutes long, which resonates throughout the lives and careers of both women, and, in broader terms, the Italian and the Hollywood film industries.

BIO:

Lucy Bolton is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at Queen Mary University of London, and is on the editorial boards of the Iris Murdoch Review, Film-Philosophy, and Open Screens. She is the author of Film and Female Consciousness: Irigaray, Cinema and Thinking Women (Palgrave 2011; 2015), and of Contemporary Cinema and the Philosophy of Iris Murdoch (EUP 2019). She is also the co-editor of Lasting Screen Stars: Images that Fade and Personas that Endure (Palgrave 2016), which won the BAFTSS award for Best Edited Collection in 2017.