''Maddalena'' is a 1954 French-Italian

melodrama film A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exces ...

directed by Augusto Genina and starring

Märta Torén Märta Torén (21 May 1925 – 19 February 1957) was a Swedish stage and film actress of the 1940s and 1950s. Torén's father was a Swedish military officer, and for three years, during World War II, she was a secretary in the Swedish war offic ...

Gino Cervi Luigi Cervi (3 May 1901 – 3 January 1974), better known as Gino Cervi (), was an Italian actor. He was best known for portraying Peppone in a series of comedies based on the character ''Don Camillo'' (1952-1965), and police detective Jules M ...

and

Charles Vanel Charles-Marie Vanel (21 August 1892 – 15 April 1989) was a French actor and director. During his 76-year film career, which began in 1912, he appeared in more than 200 films and worked with many prominent directors, including Alfred Hitchcock, ...

. It was entered into the

1954 Cannes Film Festival The 7th Cannes Film Festival was held from 25 March to 9 April 1954. With Jean Cocteau as President of the Jury, the Grand Prix went to the '' Gate of Hell'' by Teinosuke Kinugasa. The festival opened with '' Le Grand Jeu'' by Robert Siodmak. This ...

. It was shot in

technicolor Technicolor is a series of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films ...

. The film's sets were designed by the

art director Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...

Ottavio Scotti Ottavio Scotti (1904–1975) was an Italian art director. Scotti was born in Umago, which was then part of Italy but is today in Croatia. He worked on more than a hundred films during his career, including Orson Welles's ''Black Magic'' which wa ...

Plot

Every year, on Good Friday, a procession takes place in a small provincial village. This year the women of the village are unable to choose a girl who can play the Madonna. A local squire, with the intention of publicly mocking the curate Don Vincenzo, ensures that a young prostitute, Maddalena, receives this assignment. Magdalene accepts because she wants to take revenge with the Virgin for the loss of her daughter, who died in boarding school during her first communion, due to a trivial fire of the veil. The women of the village do not accept that a foreigner interprets the Madonna, but the curate defends her choice, even though he does not know who Magdalene really is. During a rehearsal of the procession, Magdalene faints and is invited by the priest to rest. But, passing by the church, he meets a woman in prayer who sees her and, believing that Magdalene is an apparition of the Madonna, invokes her to have her son healed from a serious illness. Magdalene tries to escape, but she is credited with healing the boy and she stays for the Good Friday procession. The squire, however, takes revenge by telling everyone who the girl really is. Faced with this confession, people attack Maddalena and start stoning her.

Cast

as Maddalena *

as Don Vincenzo *

as Giovanni Lamberti *

Jacques Sernas Jokūbas Bernardas Šernas (30 July 1925 – 3 July 2015), commonly known as Jacques Sernas and sometimes credited as Jack Sernas, was a Lithuanian-born French actor with an international film career. Biography He was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, ...

as Giovanni Belloni *

Folco Lulli Folco Lulli (3 July 1912 – 23 May 1970) was an Italian partisan and film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films between 1946 and 1970. He was the brother of actor Piero Lulli. Selected filmography * ''How I Lost the War'' (1947) * '' ...

as The Herdsman * Patrizia De Filippo as Maddalena's Daughter * Angiola Faranda as The Herdsman's Daughter *

Valentine Tessier Valentine Tessier (5 August 1892 – 11 August 1981) was a French actress who appeared in around thirty films during her career. She played the title role in Jean Renoir's 1934 film version of ''Madame Bovary''.Donaldson-Evans p.193 Selected fi ...

as Geltrude *

Isa Querio Isa or ISA may refer to: Places * Isa, Amur Oblast, Russia * Isa, Kagoshima, Japan * Isa, Nigeria * Isa District, Kagoshima, former district in Japan * Isa Town, middle class town located in Bahrain * Mount Isa, Queensland, Australia * Mount Is ...

as Luisa *

Bianca Doria Bianca Doria (22 September 1915 – 2 February 1985) was an Italian actress. She appeared in more than forty films during her career. She appeared in the 1963 peplum ''Hercules Against the Mongols''.Hughes, Howard. ''Cinema Italiano: The Com ...

as Rosa *

Germana Paolieri Germana Paolieri (29 August 1906 – 8 August 1998) was an Italian actress. During the 1930s she became a leading lady of Italian cinema appearing in major films such as the 1938 biopic ''Giuseppe Verdi''. Selected filmography * ''The Opera ...

as Prostitute * Liliana Gerace as The Other Prostitute *

Natale Cirino Natale Cirino (5 February 1894 – 29 May 1962) was an Italian stage and film actor. Life and career Born in Catania, Cirino started his career entering the most important theatrical companies active in Sicily (including the ones held by Turi ...

as The Barman

References

External links

* 1954 films French drama films 1950s Italian-language films 1954 drama films Films directed by Augusto Genina Films with screenplays by Pierre Bost Titanus films Pathé films Italian drama films Melodrama films 1950s Italian films 1950s French films {{1950s-drama-film-stub