“The night at the movies with a discussions about the films of Nikša Fulgosi and Luchino Visconti” was held in 2017 on St. Catherine's Island (near Pula) on the subject of the Hollywoodization and commercialization of everyday life. As a part of the thematic evening, two significant films were shown - Luchino Visconti's film Belissima (1952), and A Hundred Beauties per Day (1971) by Nikša Fulgosi.
The imperative of beauty (in women) is an interesting phenomenon of post-war European society. Visconti's film Bellissima is one of the most important achievements of Italian neo-realism. The protagonist is a woman from a modest Roman working family who is obsessed with movies, but also with the idea that her little daughter can win in the Most Beautiful Girl in Rome competition and become a movie star. The film shows an unscrupulous struggle for success.
Fulgosi in A Hundred Beauties per Day deals with the Yugoslav ideology, and as in other popular-cultural content, develops a complex attitude toward this phenomenon. The scenes of singing and acting stars who entered the lives of residents through magazines and television shows, helped to create the cult of popular personality in the western style. On the other hand, partly built according to the Italian model, the promotion of modesty was an integral part of the construction of the Yugoslav fashion and the beauty industry. Nevertheless, the contradictions of the Yugoslav system emerge in the beauty contests where socialist morality comes in contrast to the commercial success of the product, in this case feminine beauty.
