Anna is a 1951 Italian melodrama film directed by Alberto Lattuada and starring the same trio as Bitter Rice: Silvana Mangano as Anna, the sinner who becomes a nun, Raf Vallone as Andrea, the rich man who loves her, and Vittorio Gassman as Vittorio, the wicked waiter who sets Anna on a dangerous path.

Anna
German film poster
Directed byAlberto Lattuada
Written byGiuseppe Berto
Franco Brusati
Ivo Perilli
Dino Risi
Rodolfo Sonego
Produced byDino De Laurentiis
Carlo Ponti
StarringSilvana Mangano
Raf Vallone
Vittorio Gassman
Gaby Morlay
Patrizia Mangano
CinematographyOtello Martelli
Edited byGabriele Varriale
Music byNino Rota
Distributed byLux Film
Release date
  • 20 December 1951 (1951-12-20)
Running time
107 minutes
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian

Silvana Mangano's real sister, Patrizia Mangano, acts as Anna's sister in the film. Sophia Loren has a small uncredited role as a nightclub assistant. Future film directors Franco Brusati and Dino Risi co-wrote the script.

The film features the songs "Non Dimenticar" and "El Negro Zumbón", a baião popularised in the US as "Anna" and recorded much later by Pink Martini.

Plot

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A man (Vallone) suffers a car accident. He's taken to hospital, where Sister Anna (Mangano) takes care of him. The man is the reason Anna became a nun. She remembers the days she was leading a life of sin as a night club singer.

Reception

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Anna is one of the greatest box office successes of Italian cinema. "El Negro Zumbón" became a classic in Italy and Spain. Nanni Moretti paid a tribute in Dear Diary, in which the song is shown on a TV, and the opening of the song is featured in Cinema Paradiso.

Dubbed voices

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In the original Italian version, the voices of many actors in the film are dubbed:

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