RIP Vito Annichiarico (1934-2022)
On 6 August 2022, Vito Annichiarico died in Rome, age 88. He became famous as the boy Marcello, the son of Anna Magnani’s Pina, in Roberto Rossellini’s film Roma, città aperta/ Open City (1945).
Born in 1934 in Grottaglie, he was selected for the role in Rossellini’s famous neorealist film. In 2016, he won a special prize for this at the Nastri d’Argento: ‘Shooting Roma Città Aperta,’ he said on that occasion, ‘was for me like going from the stables to the stars, on the set the necessities were never missing, I felt very comfortable, I was always walking around everywhere. Where I lived, on the other hand, there was no well-being’. The famous scene of Magnani’s death, ‘the most moving’, had ‘upset him. I thought Magnani was dying for real and I was determined: I didn’t want to play in the film any more’.
After Rossellini’s masterpiece film, Annichiarico performed, again alongside Magnani, in Abbasso la miseria! (1945) and in Abbasso la ricchezza! (1946). Vittorio De Sica then wanted him for the role of Coretti in the film Cuore (1948), based on the novel by Edmondo De Amicis, while in the same year Annichiarico also acted in Domenico Gambino’s last film Un mese d’onestà. After a revue performance again with Aldo Fabrizi and Magnani, he worked in the theatre with Aroldo Tieri and Carlo Ninchi in L’uomo, la bestia e la virtù (1949). In 1950 he played in Domani è troppo tardi / Tomorrow Is Too Late by Léonide Moguy, starring Pier Angeli. By 1950 his acting career stopped he and he started to work for a multinational until his retirement. In 2005 and 2011 he took part in two documentaries revisiting the places and events of Roma città aperta: I Figli di Roma Città Aperta, by Laura Muscardin, and Voi siete qui by Francesco Mattera.
Source: ANSA <a href=”https://www.ansa.it/…/morto-vito-annichiarico-piccolo…” rel=”noreferrer nofollow”>http://www.ansa.it/…/cultura/2022/08/05/morto-vito-an…</a>. See also <a href=”https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vito_Annicchiarico” rel=”noreferrer nofollow”>it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vito_Annicchiarico</a>. Reproduction of original still from the closing shot of <i>Roma, città aperta/ Open City</i> (Roberto Rossellini, 1945). Collection Ivo Blom.
Ivo Blom 