(Un)dressing authenticity: Neorealist stardom and Anna Magnani in the postwar era (1945–48)

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This article focusses on the making of Magnani’s star image during the immediate postwar years (1945–1948). It appraises Magnani’s place within the institutional discourse of Neorealism and unpacks some of the meanings behind a notion that has been frequently associated with Magnani: authenticity. By examining Magnani’s costumes in Roma città aperta (Rome, Open City) (Rossellini, 1945) and in a number of popular comedies of the immediate postwar period alongside some of the clothes worn by the actress in her off-screen appearances, the article traces the distinctive unfolding of a ‘star narrative’ that seems especially concerned with points of origins and essences. The article demonstrates that this unfolding manifests itself through the opening of a space of absence in which, counter-intuitively, the ‘inauthentic’ appears repeatedly confronted.</jats:p>