A Multi-Faceted Look at Motherhood in Movies

All About My Mother (1999) [Source: IMDb]

Luchino Visconti’s film Bellisima (1951) and Pedro Almodovar’s film All About My Mother, or Todo sobre mi madre (1999) both delve distinctively into the overarching theme of “motherhood” in its various forms. Whilst Bellisima approaches motherhood in a focused, mother-daughter relationship dynamic, All About My Mother is multi-dimensional in its outlook towards maternity and its relation to womanhood and feminine solidarity.

All About My Mother (1999) [Source: IMDb]

An analysis of motherhood in Visconti’s Bellisima (1951)

Bellisima introduces its central characters by revealing the clash of interests between a young child and her passionate but ambitious mother. Maddalena, who had initially brought her daughter Maria to audition for famous film director Alessandro Blasetti’s new film, is frantically seen running around looking for her missing daughter. While the other girls are either seemingly enthusiastic about auditioning or obedient to their hopeful mothers’ orders, little Maria is found playing by a nearby pond, evidently against the wishes of Maddalena. This leads Maddalena into a fit of screaming, a tone she adopts over the course of the film and which perpetuates a…