Best Actress in a Supporting Role 1955: Marisa Pavan in The Rose Tattoo

Marisa Pavan received her only Oscar nomination for her performance as Rosa Delle Rose in The Rose Tattoo. 

The Rose Tattoo is a fine movie about a widow who, after having withdrawn from the world for three years because of her husband's death, finds out he was having an affair with another woman: grief-stricken, she starts to doubt about her whole marriage while a handsome truck driver enters her life. It's a good movie that I appreciated a bit more after a rewatch but still I don't find it particularly special: it's pretty well done and the first half is actually fairly strong, but I think that the second half is a huge letdown, mostly because of Burt Lancaster's almost atrociously over-the-top performance that really hinders the whole movie.

Marisa Pavan plays Rosa, the teenager daughter of the leading character, Serafina. Marisa Pavan was about 22 when the movie was made and she clearly looks more like a young adult than a teenager; it's not atrocious miscasting though and her age never becomes truly distracting, except for when it is directly mentioned. Marisa Pavan doesn't have a whole lot of screen-time in The Rose Tattoo: she is a fairly important presence in the beginning but she is completely missing for a large chunk of the movie and she only appears again towards the end. She doesn't have a particularly active role within the plot and her little storyline could have felt like a time-filler: thankfully, Marisa Pavan manages to avoid that giving a surprisingly powerful portrayal of her character and I would even say that she is what makes the last act of the movie a bit better for me.

Her first scenes, before the three-years jump, are probably the weakest of her performance as it seems like Pavan is struggling a bit to portray convincingly her character's young age: she is never bad but she never becomes fully believable even if she has some haunting, impressive moments such as when Rosa finds out about her father's death. After the time jump, the age gap between Pavan and the character of Rosa becomes smaller and even if she still looks a bit too mature for the role she inhabits the role with grace and charm and she herself feels much comfortable and assured in the role. Pavan could have been easily overshadowed by Anna Magnani's commanding performance but Pavan gives to Rosa every inch of the fierce, strong personality of Serafina: their confrontations are the movie's hihglights because Magnani and Pavan pay off each other exceptionally well. Pavan though properly adds a more tender edge to Rosa because while Rosa is just as determined as Serafina, she isn't nearly as embittered: she beautifully portrays her character's insecurities and vulnerabilities in her scenes with Ben Cooper, who portrays the charming and sweet Jack, with whom Rosa falls in love. They have a sweet and natural chemistry that makes the fact that they basically decide to marry after two days of knowing each other much more believable and convincing. The scene in which Rosa introduces Ben to her mother is a very nice moment and Pavan does a very good job in subtly portraying all the emotions of the scene, from excitement to disappointment as Serafina doesn't quite react the way she wishes.

After Rosa leaves to spend a day with Jack, Marisa Pavan is basically absent for almost an hour (save for a very brief but rather sweet scene with Cooper) and the movie focuses more on Serafina's relationship with Alvaro (Lancaster). Therefore, Pavan doesn't quite get enough time to fully realize her character's arc but she still makes Rosa's coming into her own as a person and breaking away from her mother's influence compelling and powerful. Her final scene in which she finally stands up to Serafina and decides to marry Jack is a truly moving moments thanks to Pavan's and Magnani's heartfelt performances and their realistic mother-daughter chemistry.

Ultimately Marisa Pavan delivers a strong, memorable performance that stands as one of the movie's biggest strengths. She might be a bit miscast but she brings radiance and personality to Rosa and gracefully portrays her character's arc. She handles her character's own subplot extremely well and makes what could have been an useless storyline a compelling and moving one.

4/5