March 13, 1958
ANNA MAGNANI: (From «An Athenian’s Notes») The charm of ugliness is nothing new. All ages have found something attractive in many ill-favored men and women. But the «belle laide» has been particularly popular in our own century. What critic would have said of an actress in other ages that she is ugly, fat, badly groomed but excellent? That is what an American critic has said about Anna Magnani on the occasion of the release of one of her films. The same could be said about many other women who, while not beautiful, are far more attractive than beauties. The criteria of beauty have changed in our time and are no longer based on the regularity of facial features, but on expression. It is expression that lends that undefinable radiance that emerges from a sense of the erotic, if one is to believe the psychoanalysts. It is that which summarizes the entire personality of a human being. ITALIAN PHILHELLENES: A branch of the Italian association «Friends of Greece» officially opened in Palermo with a lecture by Professor Apostolos Daskalakis of Athens University on «The Contribution of Italian Philhellenes to the Greek War of Independence.»
