Films: Down with Misery; Peddlin’ in Society

Retrospective: Anna Magnani

(Abbasso la miseria!, Gennaro Righelli, 1945)
(Abbasso la ricchezza!, Gennaro Righelli, 1946)

Prolific director Gennaro Righelli directed Italy’s first sound film, The Song of Love (1930), and would direct more than 100 films during his career. His rarely screened comedy Down with Misery features Magnani as the wife of a truck driver who is none-too-pleased when her husband brings home a savvy orphan off the street. (90 mins., 35 mm) In Peddlin’ in Society, Magnani plays a street vendor who gets rich through the postwar black market, attracting a steady stream of good-for-nothings that includes a flea-bitten count played by Vittorio De Sica. (85 mins., 35mm)

Watch the trailer and buy tickets here.