Bellissima

In the early 1950s, Rome's film studio Cinecittà is looking for a little girl to star in a new picture directed by Blasetti, and hundreds of mothers line up with their daughters. Maddalena Cecconi (Anna Magnani) brings her daughter Maria (Tina Apicella), and Luchino Visconti follows her through the crowded auditions. Maddalena works and borrows and gives up whatever she has to, because she wants Maria to have a different life from hers.