Actors, Non-professional Actors, Starlets, and Stars

Film critics and film history celebrate neorealism for its use of nonprofessional performers in a number of masterpieces. However, as lucid observers such as André Bazin pointed out in the late 1940s, neorealist films relied on a mixture of professional and non-professional actors. This chapter describes the debate on film performance and its origins from the mid-1930s to the early 1950s and looks at how the use of non-professional performers was associated with neorealism’s aim to present a non-narrative cinematic representation. Moreover, the chapter examines the relationship between neorealism, non-professional performers, and phenomena such as popular theatre and new female stardom. The chapter ends with a case study of the most renowned neorealist actress, Anna Magnani.