Gina is the daughter of a provincial newsstand dealer and spends her time reading pulp magazines and dreaming of a glamorous vocation on the big city. She enters a beauty contest in a nearby city, without her father's permission, and, en route, meets Franco, a salesman.
Acting
Irene Genna captures desperate small-town longing with luminous vulnerability.
Cinematography
Neorealist-influenced black-and-white contrasts rural drabness with contest glamour.
Director
Leonardo De Mitri
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This 1951 melodrama captures Italy's post-war obsession with American glamour culture infiltrating traditional provincial life.
Eleonora Rossi Drago, who plays rival Mara, became an international star while lead Irene Genna's career stalled—Hollywood's cruelty in miniature.
IT
