Screenwriters - Italian Classic Cinema Screenwriters
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Cesare Zavattini was born on 20 September 1902 in Luzzara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Bicycle Thieves (1948), Umberto D. (1952) and It's Forever Springtime (1950). He was married to Olga Berni. He died on 13 October 1989 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Sergio Amidei was born on 3 October 1904 in Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. He was a writer and producer, known for Rome, Open City (1945), Un borghese piccolo piccolo (1977) and General Della Rovere (1959). He died on 14 April 1981 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Furio Scarpelli was born on 16 December 1919 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Postman (1994), The Family (1987) and Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958). He was married to Cora Conti. He died on 28 April 2010 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Agenore Incrocci was born on 4 July 1919 in Brescia, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958), The Organizer (1963) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). He died on 15 November 2005 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Ettore Scola was born on 10 May 1931 in Trevico, Campania, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for A Special Day (1977), The Family (1987) and Passion of Love (1981). He was married to Gigliola. He died on 19 January 2016 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Legendary Italian screenwriter was born Antonio Guerra on the 16th of March 1920 in Sant'Arcangelo, Italy, south of Ravenna. He wrote several short stories, poetry and novels and in 1956 his first screenplay "Man and Wolves" (co-written by Elio Petri) was directed by Giuseppe De Santis. Three years later he wrote the masterpiece, "L'Avventura", which began his long collaboration with one of the greatest directors of all time Michelangelo Antonioni. Tonino Guerra earned Oscar nominations 3 times: for the Casanova 70 (1965), for Blow-Up (1966) by Antonioni and for Amarcord (1973) directed by Federico Fellini. He has worked with many other masters such as Francesco Rosi on _Lucky Luciano (1974)_ and and Andrei Tarkovsky on Nostalghia (1983). Tonino Guerra is a poet and one of busiest and the most important screenwriters of cinema who won Cannes Film Festival's Best Screenplay award for the "Voyage to Cythera" by Theo Angelopoulos and received an honorary award of the Venice Film Festival. Tonino Guerra is a great fan of two persecuted film geniuses Andrei Tarkovsky and Sergei Parajanov.- Writer
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Mario Monicelli was born on 16 May 1915 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Organizer (1963), Speriamo che sia femmina (1986) and Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958). He was married to Chiara Rapaccini and Antonella Salerni. He died on 29 November 2010 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Suso Cecchi D'Amico was born on 21 July 1914 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She was a writer and actress, known for Bicycle Thieves (1948), The Leopard (1963) and Rocco and His Brothers (1960). She was married to Fidele d'Amico. She died on 31 July 2010 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Luciano Vincenzoni, born in Treviso, March 7, 1926, studied law in Rome and Padua. In 1952, with his friend Tony Roma, he produced "Oliva Incantesimo Tragico", starring María Félix. In 1954, he wrote his first script "Hanno Rubato un Tram", directed by Aldo Fabrizi. In this year, he met 'Pietro Germi' and wrote "The Railroad Man". 1956 began a collaboration with Dino De Laurentiis, and created films like "The Great War", "The Best of Enemies", and "The Hunchback". In 1960, with Mino Roli he co-authored "Sacco e Vanzetti", staged in Italy and many foreign countries. During 1963-65 he wrote "Seduced and Abandoned" and "The Birds, The Bees and The Italians" with Pietro Germi, produced by Robert Haggiag. In 1965, with his friend Sergio Leone he wrote "For a Few Dollars More", and helped him to sell the film to United Artists, and in the same year wrote "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly". Vincenzoni has worked with Billy Wilder, Peter Bogdanovich, 'Rene Clement' and many others. He is WGA member, emeritus.- Writer
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Ugo Pirro was born on 24 April 1920 in Salerno, Campania, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970), Celluloide (1996) and We Still Kill the Old Way (1967). He died on 18 January 2008 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Leonardo Benvenuti was born on 8 September 1923 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. He was a writer and assistant director, known for Speriamo che sia femmina (1986), Amici miei (1975) and Between Miracles (1971). He was married to Christiana Di Vita. He died on 3 November 2000 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Piero De Bernardi was born on 12 April 1926 in Prato, Tuscany, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Speriamo che sia femmina (1986), Amici miei (1975) and Between Miracles (1971). He died on 8 January 2010 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy.- Writer
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Ennio De Concini was born on 9 December 1923 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Divorce Italian Style (1961), The Facts of Murder (1959) and Son of Samson (1960). He died on 17 November 2008 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Ruggero Maccari was born on 28 June 1919 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Family (1987), A Special Day (1977) and I Knew Her Well (1965). He died on 8 May 1989 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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During the 1970s, Lina Wertmüller emblazoned her name into the pantheon of Italian cinema with a series of intensely polemical, deeply controversial and wonderfully entertaining films. Among the most politically outspoken and iconoclastic members of the second generation of postwar directors - the direct heirs to the neo-realists - Wertmüller was also one of the first woman directors to be internationally recognized and acclaimed. Armed with a keenly satiric and Rabelaisian humor, Wertmüller reinvented the narrative forms and character types of Italian comedy to create one of the rare examples of a radical, politically galvanized cinema that managed to achieve widespread popularity. Indeed, the fierce invectives against social, cultural and historical inequities at the heart of Wertmüller's mid-1970s masterworks Love and Anarchy, Seven Beauties and Swept Away seemed only to help the films find an appreciative audience, especially in the United States, where they broke box office records for foreign films and even secured Wertmüller an Oscar nomination for Best Director - the very first woman named for this category. Although Wertmüller remains a well-known name, her remarkable films are strangely overlooked and only selectively revisited. And yet, the incredible energy and daring of her most popular works is equally present in lesser-known masterpieces such as All Screwed Up and The Seduction of Mimi, films that are both extremely topical and yet still totally relevant today.- Writer
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Italo Moscati was born on 22 August 1937 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He is a writer and director, known for The Night Porter (1974), Dove siete? Io sono qui (1993) and Il cerchio rotto.- Editor
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Silvano Agosti was born on 23 March 1938 in Brescia, Lombardy, Italy. He is an editor and director, known for Uova di garofano (1991), Quartiere (1987) and Fit to Be Untied (1975).- Writer
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Rodolfo Sonego was born on 27 February 1921 in Cavarzano, Belluno, Veneto, Italy. He was a writer and assistant director, known for The Girl with a Pistol (1968), Why? (1971) and A Difficult Life (1961). He was married to Allegra Rossignotti. He died on 15 October 2000 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Pier Paolo Pasolini achieved fame and notoriety long before he entered the film industry. A published poet at 19, he had already written numerous novels and essays before his first screenplay in 1954. His first film Accattone (1961) was based on his own novel and its violent depiction of the life of a pimp in the slums of Rome caused a sensation. He was arrested in 1962 when his contribution to the portmanteau film Ro.Go.Pa.G. (1963) was considered blasphemous and given a suspended sentence. It might have been expected that his next film, The Gospel According to St. Matthew (1964) (The Gospel According to St. Matthew), which presented the Biblical story in a totally realistic, stripped-down style, would cause a similar fuss but, in fact, it was rapturously acclaimed as one of the few honest portrayals of Christ on screen. Its original Italian title pointedly omitted the Saint in St. Matthew). Pasolini's film career would then alternate distinctly personal and often scandalously erotic adaptations of classic literary texts: Oedipus Rex (1967) (Oedipus Rex); The Decameron (1971); The Canterbury Tales (1972) (The Canterbury Tales); Arabian Nights (1974) (Arabian Nights), with his own more personal projects, expressing his controversial views on Marxism, atheism, fascism and homosexuality, notably Teorema (1968) (Theorem), Pigsty and the notorious Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), a relentlessly grim fusion of Benito Mussolini's Fascist Italy with the 'Marquis de Sade' which was banned in Italy and many other countries for several years. Pasolini was murdered in still-mysterious circumstances shortly after completing the film.- Writer
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Ennio Flaiano was born on 5 March 1910 in Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy. He was a writer and actor, known for 8½ (1963), La Dolce Vita (1960) and Nights of Cabiria (1957). He was married to Rosetta Rota. He died on 20 November 1972 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Steno was born on 19 January 1917 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Execution Squad (1972), Cops and Robbers (1951) and La patata bollente (1979). He died on 12 March 1988 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Pasquale Festa Campanile was born on 28 July 1927 in Melfi, Basilicata, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Leopard (1963), Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and The Four Days of Naples (1962). He was married to Anna Salvatore. He died on 25 February 1986 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Giorgio Bassani was born on 4 March 1916 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was a writer and actor, known for La mano dello straniero (1954), Woman of Rome (1954) and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. He was married to Valeria Sinigallia. He died on 13 April 2000 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Elio Bartolini was born on 22 April 1922 in Conegliano, Veneto, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for L'Avventura (1960), L'Eclisse (1962) and L'altro Dio (1975). He was married to Gioconda Dozzi. He died on 30 April 2006 in San Daniele del Friuli, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy.- Writer
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Ennio De Concini was born on 9 December 1923 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Divorce Italian Style (1961), The Facts of Murder (1959) and Son of Samson (1960). He died on 17 November 2008 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Together with Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa, Michelangelo Antonioni is credited with defining the modern art film. And yet Antonioni's cinema is also recognized today for defying any easy categorization, with his films ultimately seeming to belong to their own distinctive genre. Indeed, the difficulty of precisely describing their category is itself the very quintessence of Antonioni's films. Among the most-cited contributions of Antonioni's cinema are their striking descriptions of that unique strain of post-boom ennui everywhere apparent in the transformed life and leisure habits of the Italian middle and upper classes. Detecting profound technological, political and psychological shifts at work in post-WWII Italy, Antonioni set out to explore the ambiguities of a suddenly alienated and dislocated Italy, not simply through his oblique style of narrative and characters, nor through any overt political messaging, but instead by tearing asunder the traditional boundaries of cinematic narrative in order to explore an ever shifting internal landscape expressed through architecture, urban space and the sculptural, shaping presence of objects, shapes and emotions invented by camera movement and depth of focus.
Antonioni deftly manipulates the quieter, indirect edges of cinematic structure, often so discretely that his existential puzzles are felt before they can be intellectualized. The negative space is as prominent as the positive, silence as loud as noise, absence as palpable as presence, and passivity as driving a force as direct action. Transgressing unspoken cinematic laws, Antonioni frequently focuses on female protagonists while refusing to sentimentalize or morally judge his characters and placing them on equal footing with the other elements within his total dynamic system, like sounds or set pieces. And he violates spoken rules with unconventional cutting techniques, fractured spatial and temporal continuity, and a camera that insistently lingers in melancholy pauses, long after the actors depart, as if drifting just behind an equally distracted, dissipating narrative. Leaving questions unanswered and plot points irresolute, dispensing with exposition, suspense, sentimentality and other cinematic security blankets, Antonioni releases the viewer into a gorgeous, densely layered fog to contemplate and wrestle with his characters' imprecise quandaries and endless possibilities. Culminating in tour de force endings that often reframe the narrative in a daring, parting act of deconstruction, Antonioni's rigorously formal, yet open compositions allow his great, unwieldy questions to spill over into the world outside the cinema and outside of time.
Born into a middle-class family in the northern Italian town of Ferrara, Antonioni studied economics at the University of Bologna where he also co-founded the university's theatrical troupe. While dedicating himself to painting, writing film reviews, working in financial positions and in different capacities on film productions, Antonioni suffered a few false starts before expressing his unique directorial vision and voice in his first realized short film, Gente del Po, a moving portrait of fisherman in the misty Po Valley where he was raised. Uncomfortable with the neo-realist thrust of Italian cinema, Antonioni directed a series of eccentric and oblique documentary shorts that, in retrospect, reveal his desire to investigate the psyche's mysterious interiors. In his first fictional feature, Story of a Love Affair, Antonioni immediately subtly challenged traditional plot and audience expectation in ways that anticipate the formal and emotional expressionist dynamic that would fully flower within the groundbreaking L'Avventura (1960).
Reversing its raucous 1960 premiere to an infuriated Cannes audience, L'Avventura was rapturously lauded by fellow artists and filmmakers and awarded a special Jury Prize "for its remarkable contribution toward the search for a new cinematic language." It also presented the controlled ambivalence of Monica Vitti, who would become his partner, muse and psychological constant throughout his famed trilogy of L'Avventura, La Notte (1961) and L'Eclisse (1962) in addition to the exquisite Red Desert (1964), a film that marked another significant shift toward expressive color, male leads and working with soft focus and faster cuts. After the phenomenal commercial success of the MGM-produced Blow-Up (1966), Antonioni was devastated by the anti-climactic box office disaster of Zabriskie Point (1970) and returned to documentary. Invited to make Chung Kuo China by the Chinese government, Antonioni delivered a mesmerizing yet unsentimental four-hour tour of China which was vehemently rejected by its solicitors. A few years later, Antonioni returned to fictional form in his last masterpiece, The Passenger (1975), an enigmatic fable of vaporous identity that offers a bold companion piece to L'Avventura. Aside from the thematically retrospective Identification of a Woman (1982) and a period film made for television, The Mystery of Oberwald (1980) in which he conducted unusual experiments with color and video, Antonioni closed out his career with mostly short films, many of which were made after he suffered a stroke in 1985.
Tremendously influential yet largely taken for granted, Antonioni made difficult, abstract cinema mainstream. Embracing an anarchic geometry, Antonioni turned the architecture of narrative filmmaking inside-out in the most eloquent way possible, with many of his iconic scenes eternally preserved in the depths of the cinema's psyche. Observing modern maladies without judgment - sexism, dissolution of family and tradition, ecological/technological quandaries and the eternal questions of our place in the cosmos - Antonioni's prescience continues to resonate deeply as we find our way in the quickly moving fog.- Writer
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Marco Ferreri was born on 11 May 1928 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981), L'udienza (1972) and El cochecito (1960). He was married to Jacqueline Ferreri. He died on 9 May 1997 in Paris, France.- Writer
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Cecilia Mangini was born on 31 July 1927 in Mola di Bari, Apulia, Italy. She was a writer and director, known for All'armi siam fascisti! (1962), Klon (1992) and Antonio Gramsci: i giorni del carcere (1977). She was married to Lino Del Fra. She died on 21 January 2021 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Lino Del Fra was born on 20 June 1927 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Antonio Gramsci: i giorni del carcere (1977), Klon (1992) and Cake in the Sky (1973). He was married to Cecilia Mangini. He died on 19 July 1997 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
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Paolo Taviani studied liberal arts at the University of Pisa, becoming interested in the cinema after seeing Roberto Rossellini's Paisan (1946). After writing and directing short films and plays with his brother Vittorio, he made his first feature in 1962. The brothers have continued to work together ever since, with each directing alternate scenes with the other watching but never interfering.- Director
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Vittorio Taviani studied law at the University of Pisa, becoming interested in the cinema after seeing Roberto Rossellini's Paisan (1946). After writing and directing short films and plays with his brother Paolo, he made his first feature in 1962. The brothers have continued to work together ever since, with each directing alternate scenes with the other watching but never interfering.- Writer
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Italian playwright, screenwriter, and director. At age 24, he received his law degree, but proceeded upon a career in journalism. He collaborated with Dino Falconi on a number of successful comedies for the stage before entering films soon after the coming of sound. Soon thereafter he began directing as well as writing films. During the Second World War he assumed the artistic leadership of Scalera Films. He continued to write fiction, reviews, and plays as well as films, his most renowned film script being that for Bicycle Thieves (1948).- Luigi Bartolini was born on 8 February 1892 in Cupramontana, Marche, Italy. He was a writer, known for Bicycle Thieves (1948). He died on 16 May 1963 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
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Marco Bellocchio is one of the most consistent and most adventurous of today's Italian directors-an achievement all the more remarkable given that he made his feature debut almost fifty years ago. Over those years, he has amassed a body of films that encompasses a large number of original screenplays, adaptations of the likes of Pirandello and Kleist and personal, quasi-autobiographical work. What unifies these films is the beauty and originality of Bellocchio's images and his unceasing quest to understand the place of the individual in contemporary Italy and contemporary cinema. After making a few shorts, Bellocchio announced himself with his ferocious first feature, the acclaimed Fists in the Pocket (1965). This caustic and anarchic look at an extremely troubled family launched him instantly to the first ranks of the Italian film scene, alongside Antonioni, Pasolini and Bertolucci. For the next several years, films such as China Is Near (1967) and In the Name of the Father (1971) found Bellocchio examining the turbulent world of leftist politics and revolutionary dreams with an eye both sympathetic and jaundiced. During the 1980s and 1990s, under the spell of unorthodox-and, to some, controversial-psychoanalyst Massimo Fagioli, Bellocchio's emphasis turned to examining the interweaving of family dynamics and sexual desire as they produce and undermine personal identities. Films such as A Leap in the Dark (1980) and Devil in the Flesh (1986) create complex allegories of an audacious originality. More recently, Bellocchio has turned to more straightforward narratives in a number of films that examine Italy's recent past and its present, from The Nanny (1999) to one of his most recent works, Dormant Beauty (2012). Shifting brilliantly from realist fiction to archival footage to the imagery of dream or fantasy, all within a single film, this recent period has returned Bellocchio to the forefront of contemporary cinema, while combining the lessons learned from both the previous political and allegorical work. What has remained constant is Bellocchio's searching critique of the institutions that control individuals and organize the flow of power: the army, political parties, schools, the state and its laws, the Church, and the family.- Writer
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Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director whose films were known for their colorful visual style, was born in Parma, Italy. He attended Rome University and became famous as a poet. He served as assistant director for Pier Paolo Pasolini in the film Accattone (1961) and directed The Grim Reaper (1962). His second film, Before the Revolution (1964), which was released in 1971, received an Academy Award nomination for best screenplay. Bertolucci also received an Academy Award nomination as best director for Last Tango in Paris (1972), and the best director and best screenplay for the film The Last Emperor (1987), which walked away with nine Academy Awards.- Writer
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Giuseppe Bertolucci was born on 24 February 1947 in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Berlinguer: I Love You (1977), Segreti segreti (1985) and The Sweet Sounds of Life (1999). He was married to Lucilla Albano. He died on 16 June 2012 in Diso, Puglia, Italy.- Writer
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Attilio Bertolucci was born on 18 November 1911 in San Lazzaro [now Parma], Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was a writer, known for Donne e soldati (1954), La duchessa di Parma (1948) and Nasce il romanico (1949). He was married to Evelina 'Ninetta' Giovanardi. He died on 14 June 2000 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
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Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti (A.K.A. Vincenzo Leone), one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Valerian. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and U.S. directors working in Italy (usually making Biblical and Roman epics, much in vogue at the time). Towards the end of the 1950s he started writing screenplays, and began directing after taking over The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) in mid-shoot after its original director fell ill. His first solo feature, The Colossus of Rhodes (1961), was a routine Roman epic, but his second feature, A Fistful of Dollars (1964), a shameless remake of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961), caused a revolution. It was the first Spaghetti Western, and shot T.V. cowboy Clint Eastwood to stardom (Leone wanted Henry Fonda or Charles Bronson but couldn't afford them). The two sequels, For a Few Dollars More (1965) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), were shot on much higher budgets and were even more successful, though his masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), in which Leone finally worked with Fonda and Bronson, was mutilated by Paramount Pictures and flopped at the U.S. box office. He directed Duck, You Sucker! (1971) reluctantly (as producer he hired Peter Bogdanovich to direct but he left before shooting began), and turned down offers to direct The Godfather (1972) in favor of his dream project, which became Once Upon a Time in America (1984). He died in 1989 after preparing an even more expensive Soviet co-production on the World War II siege of Leningrad.- Writer
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Dario Argento was born on September 7, 1940, in Rome, Italy, the first-born son of famed Italian producer Salvatore Argento and Brazilian fashion model Elda Luxardo. Argento recalls getting his ideas for filmmaking from his close-knit family from Italian folk tales told by his parents and other family members, including an aunt who told him frighting bedtime stories. Argento based most of his thriller movies on childhood trauma, yet his own--according to him--was a normal one. Along with tales spun by his aunt, Argento was impressed by stories from The Grimm Brothers, Hans Christian Andersen and Edgar Allan Poe. Argento started his career writing for various film journal magazines while still in his teens attending a Catholic high school. After graduation, instead of going to college, Argento took a job as a columnist for the Rome daily newspaper "Paese Sera". Inspired by the movies, he later found work as a screenwriter and wrote several screenplays for a number of films, but the most important were his western collaborations, which included Cemetery Without Crosses (1969) and the Sergio Leone masterpiece Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). After its release Argento wrote and directed his first movie, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), which starred Tony Musante and and British actress Suzy Kendall. It's a loose adoption on Fredric Brown's novel "The Screaming Mimi", which was made for his father's film company. Argento wanted to direct the movie himself because he did not want any other director messing up the production and his screenplay.
After "The Bird With the Crystal Plumage" became an international hit, Argento followed up with two more thrillers, The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971), starring 'Karl Madlen' (qv" and 'James Fransiscus', and Four Flies on Grey Velvet (1971) ("Four Flies On Black Velvet"), both backed by his father Salvatore. Argento then directed the TV drama Testimone oculare (1973) and the historical TV drama The Five Days (1973). He then went back to directing so-called "giallo" thrillers, starting with Deep Red (1975), a violent mystery-thriller starring David Hemmings that inspired a number of international directors in the thriller-horror genre. His next work was Suspiria (1977), a surreal horror film about a witch's coven that was inspired by the Gothic fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson, which he also wrote in collaboration with his girlfriend, screenwriter/actress Daria Nicolodi, who acted in "Profondo Rosso" ("Deep Red") and most of Argento's films from then to the late 1980s. Argento advanced the unfinished trilogy with Inferno (1980), before returning to the "giallo" genre with the gory Tenebrae (1982), and then with the haunting Phenomena (1985).
The lukewarm reviews for his films, however, caused Argento to slip away from directing to producing and co-writing two Lamberto Bava horror flicks, Demons (1985) and Demons 2 (1986). Argento returned to directing with the "giallo" thriller Opera (1987), which according to him was "a very unpleasant experience", and no wonder: a rash of technical problems delayed production, the lead actress Vanessa Redgrave dropped out before filming was to begin, Argento's father Salvatore died during filming and his long-term girlfriend Daria broke off their relationship. After the commercial box-office failure of "Opera", Argento temporarily settled in the US, where he collaborated with director George A. Romero on the two-part horror-thriller Two Evil Eyes (1990) (he had previously collaborated with Romero on the horror action thriller Dawn of the Dead (1978)). While still living in America, Argento appeared in small roles in several films and directed another violent mystery thriller, Trauma (1993), which starred his youngest daughter Asia Argento from his long-term relationship with Nicolodi.
Argento returned to Italy in 1995, where he made a comeback in the horror genre with The Stendhal Syndrome (1996) and then with another version of "The Phantom of the Opera", The Phantom of the Opera (1998), both of which starred Asia. Most recently, Argento directed a number of "giallo" mystery thrillers such as Sleepless (2001), The Card Player (2003) and Do You Like Hitchcock? (2005), as well as two gory, supernatural-themed episodes of the USA TV cable anthology series Masters of Horror (2005).
Having always wanted to make a third chapter to his "Three Mothers" horror films, Argento finally completed the trilogy in 2007 with the release of Mother of Tears (2007), which starred Asia Argento as a young woman trying to identify and stop the last surviving evil witch from taking over the world. In addition to his Gothic and violent style of storytelling, "La terza madre" has many references to two of his previous films, "Suspiria" (1997) and "Inferno" (1980), which is a must for fans of the trilogy.
His movies may be regarded by some critics and opponents as cheap and overly violent, but second or third viewings show him to be a talented writer/director with a penchant for original ideas and creative directing.- Writer
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Sergio Donati was born on 13 April 1933 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He is a writer and actor, known for Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Raw Deal (1986) and Duck, You Sucker! (1971).- Writer
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Franco Brusati was born on 4 August 1922 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Bread and Chocolate (1974), Romeo and Juliet (1968) and I tulipani di Haarlem (1970). He died on 28 February 1993 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Tullio Pinelli was born on 24 June 1908 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy. He was a writer, known for La Dolce Vita (1960), The Road (1954) and 8½ (1963). He was married to Madeleine Lebeau. He died on 7 March 2009 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
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Franco Arcalli was born on 13 March 1929 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was an editor and writer, known for Last Tango in Paris (1972), 1900 (1976) and Once Upon a Time in America (1984). He died on 24 February 1978 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Alberto Moravia was born on 22 November 1907 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and actor, known for Contempt (1963), The Conformist (1970) and Two Women (1960). He was married to Carmen Llera and Elsa Morante. He died on 26 September 1990 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Italo Calvino was born on 15 October 1923 in Santiago de Las Vegas, Cuba. He was a writer, known for Boccaccio '70 (1962), Ti-Koyo e il suo pescecane (1962) and L'amore difficile (1962). He was married to Esther Calvino. He died on 19 September 1985 in Siena, Tuscany, Italy.- Writer
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Enzo Ungari was born on 13 July 1948 in La Spezia, Liguria, Italy. He was a writer and actor, known for The Last Emperor (1987), Art of Love (1983) and Oggetti smarriti (1980). He died on 22 February 1985 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Mario Soldati studied by the Jesuits and in the 1920s was acquainted with liberal intellectuals who gathered around Piero Gobetti. He wrote his first play ("Pilatus") when he was 18, and published hist first short story collection ("Salmace") in 1929. In 1935 he reached literary success with "America primo amore" (America First Love), a novel in which he transposed his diary of his stay in the U.S. between 1929 and 1931 as guest professor at the Columbia University. His life was divided between literature and movie-making. He was also a well-known scholar of English and American Literature, and authored several documentary programs for Italian State broadcaster RAI-TV.- Writer
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Antonio Pietrangeli was born on 19 January 1919 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for I Knew Her Well (1965), The Visit (1963) and March's Child (1958). He was married to Margherita Ferroni. He died on 12 July 1968 in Gaeta, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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His father was a shipowner. After school, Rosi initially began studying law, which he soon dropped out to work as a broadcast journalist and book illustrator in Naples. From 1944 to 1945 he worked for "Radio Napoli". In the immediate post-war years, Rosi moved to Rome, where he came into contact with the film world. He initially acted as an assistant to several directors and thus played a key role in the development of Italian "Neorealismo". From 1947 to 1948, Rosi assisted Luchino Visconti in the filming of the masterpiece of neorealism "La terra trema". In addition to working on other Visconti films, he also studied with Michelangelo Antonioni. In 1957 Rosi celebrated his directorial debut with "La sfida".
The success led to a long series of films in the following decades, some of which courageously dealt with unpleasant and critical topics in Italian post-war society. Rosi's films such as "Le mani sulla città" (1963), "Cadaveri eccellenti" (1976) and "Cristo si è fermato a Eboli" (1979) are dedicated to the ruthless analysis of events in contemporary Italian history and the present. The director bluntly denounces the grievances resulting from war, crime and corruption as social processes that are tolerated, accepted or even intended by political power. With the film adaptation of the opera "Carmen" (1984) and the novel by Gabriel García Márquez "Cronaca di una morte annunciata" (1987), Rosi approached emotional productions, abandoning his previous materialistic analysis.
However, both films remain connected to the basic theme of Rosi's work, the Italian South, which the director deepened again through the pessimistic study of the global character of the Italian-American mafia in "Dimenticare Palermo" (1989). Rosi received numerous awards for his work. His directorial debut won an award in Venice in 1958. In 1962 he was awarded the Berlin Silver Bear for the film about "Salvatore Giuliano". In 2000 he received the "Grand Prix des Amériques" in Montreal for his life's work.
Francesco Rosi is married to Giancarla Rosi Mandelli and lives in Rome.- Writer
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Enrico Medioli was born on 17 March 1925 in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was a writer, known for The Leopard (1963), Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and The Damned (1969). He died on 21 April 2017 in Orvieto, Umbria, Italy.- Writer
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Valerio Zurlini was born on March 19, 1926. During his law studies in Rome, he started working in the theatre. In 1943, he joined the Italian resistance. Zurlini became a member of the Italian Communist Party. He filmed short documentaries in the immediate post-war period and in 1954 directed his first feature film, Le ragazze di San Frediano (1955), his only comedy. In 1958, together with Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi and Alberto Lattuada, he won the Silver Ribbon for Best Script for Lattuada's Guendalina (1957). Zurlini made his name as a director with his second feature film, Violent Summer (1959), starring Eleonora Rossi Drago and Jean-Louis Trintignant.
In 1961 Zurlini filmed Girl with a Suitcase (1961), a successful drama, starring Claudia Cardinale and Jacques Perrin, who would become Zurlini's favorite actor. In 1962 Zurlini's film Family Diary (1962) earned him the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (it tied with Andrei Tarkovsky's Ivan's Childhood (1962)). Zurlini had a masterful skill for screen adaptations Both Le ragazze di San Frediano (1955) and Family Diary (1962) were based on Vasco Pratolini's work. Zurlini admired the work of Italian novelist Giorgio Bassani and hoped to adapt his novel "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis," which was subsequently directed by Vittorio De Sica (see The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)). His 1965 film The Camp Followers (1965) was entered into the 4th Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Special Silver Prize. Zurlini's last film, The Desert of the Tartars (1976), produced by Jacques Perrin and featuring an all-star ensemble, was based on Dino Buzzati's novel of the same name. The movie won both the David di Donatello for Best Director and the Silver Ribbon for Best Director.
The visual style of Zurlini's adaptations was informed by artists Giorgio De Chirico, Giorgio Morandi and Ottone Rosai. During the last years of his life, Zurlini taught at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome and worked as a dubbing director for the Italian versions for such movies as The Deer Hunter (1978) and My American Uncle (1980). He died of stomach hemorrhage in Verona on October 27, 1982.- Director
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Mauro Bolognini was born on 28 February 1922 in Pistoia, Tuscany, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Madamigella di Maupin (1966), Mosca addio (1987) and Careless (1962). He died on 14 May 2001 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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The women who both attracted and frightened him and an Italy dominated in his youth by Mussolini and Pope Pius XII - inspired the dreams that Fellini started recording in notebooks in the 1960s. Life and dreams were raw material for his films. His native Rimini and characters like Saraghina (the devil herself said the priests who ran his school) - and the Gambettola farmhouse of his paternal grandmother would be remembered in several films. His traveling salesman father Urbano Fellini showed up in La Dolce Vita (1960) and 8½ (1963). His mother Ida Barbiani was from Rome and accompanied him there in 1939. He enrolled in the University of Rome. Intrigued by the image of reporters in American films, he tried out the real life role of journalist and caught the attention of several editors with his caricatures and cartoons and then started submitting articles. Several articles were recycled into a radio series about newlyweds "Cico and Pallina". Pallina was played by acting student Giulietta Masina, who became his real life wife from October 30, 1943, until his death half a century later. The young Fellini loved vaudeville and was befriended in 1940 by leading comedian Aldo Fabrizi. Roberto Rossellini wanted Fabrizi to play Don Pietro in Rome, Open City (1945) and made the contact through Fellini. Fellini worked on that film's script and is on the credits for Rosselini's Paisan (1946). On that film he wandered into the editing room, started observing how Italian films were made (a lot like the old silent films with an emphasis on visual effects, dialogue dubbed in later). Fellini in his mid-20s had found his life's work.- Writer
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The master filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, as one of the creators of neo-realism, is one of the most influential directors of all time. His neo-realist films influenced France's nouvelle vague movement in the 1950s and '60s that changed the face of international cinema. He also influenced American directors, including Martin Scorsese.
He was born into the world of film, making his debut in Rome on May 8, 1906, the son of Elettra (Bellan), a housewife, and Angiolo Giuseppe "Beppino" Rossellini, the man who opened Italy's first cinema. He was immersed in cinema from the beginning, growing up watching movies in his father's movie-house from the time that film was first quickening as an art form. Italy was one of the places were movie-making matured, and Italian film had a huge influence on D.W. Griffith and other international directors. Between the two world wars, Hollywood would soon dictate what constituted a "well-made" film, but Rossellini would be one of the Italian directors who once again put Italy at the forefront of international cinema after the Second World War.
His training in cinema was thorough and extensive and he became expert in many facets of film-making. (His brother Renzo Rossellini, also was involved in the industry, scoring films.) He did his apprenticeship as an assistant to Italian filmmakers, then got the chance to make his first film, a documentary, "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune", in 1937. Due to his close ties to Benito Mussolini's second son, the critic and film producer Vittorio Mussolini, he flourished in fascist Italy's cinema. Once Il Duce was deposed, Rossellini produced his first classic film, the anti-fascist Rome, Open City (1945) ("Rome, Open City") in 1945, which won the Grand Prize at Cannes. Two other neo-realist classics soon followed, Paisan (1946) ("Paisan") and Germany Year Zero (1948) ("Germany in the Year Zero"). "Rome, Open City" screenwriters Sergio Amidei and Federico Fellini were nominated for a Best Writing, Screenplay Oscar in 1947, while Rossellini himself, along with Amidei, Fellini and two others were nominated for a screen-writing Oscar in 1950 for "Paisan".
"I do not want to make beautiful films, I want to make useful films," he said. Rossellini claimed, "I try to capture reality, nothing else." This led him to often cast non-professional actors, then tailor his scripts to their idiosyncrasies and life-stories to heighten the sense of realism.
With other practitioners of neo-realism, Vittorio De Sica and Luchino Visconti, film was changed forever. American director Elia Kazan credits neo-realism with his own evolution as a filmmaker, away from Hollywood's idea of the well-made film to the gritty realism of On the Waterfront (1954).
Rossellini had a celebrated, adulterous affair with Ingrid Bergman that was an international scandal. They became lovers on the set of Stromboli (1950) while both were married to other people and Bergman became pregnant. After they shed their spouses and married, producing three children, history repeated itself when Rossellini cheated on her with the Indian screenwriter Sonali Senroy DasGupta while he was in India at the request of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to help revitalize that country's film industry. It touched off another international scandal, and Nehru ousted him from the country. Rossellini later divorced Bergman to marry Das Gupta, legitimizing their child that had been born out-of-wedlock.
Rossellini continued to make films until nearly his death. His last film The Messiah (1975) ("The Messiah"), a story of The Passion of Christ, was released in 1975.
Roberto Rossellini died of a heart attack in Rome on June 3, 1977. He was 71 years old.- Writer
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Sergio Bazzini was born on 26 February 1935 in Pistoia, Tuscany, Italy. He is a writer and assistant director, known for The Seed of Man (1969), A... For Assassin (1966) and Convoy Buddies (1975).- Writer
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Giuseppe De Santis was born on 11 February 1917 in Fondi, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Tragic Hunt (1947), Giorni d'amore (1954) and Bitter Rice (1949). He was married to Gordana Miletic. He died on 16 May 1997 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Diego Fabbri was born on 2 July 1911 in Forlì, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was a writer, known for General Della Rovere (1959), Les mystères de Paris (1962) and El Cid (1961). He was married to Giuliana Facciani. He died on 14 August 1980 in Riccione, Emilia-Romagna, Italy.- Writer
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Gianni Puccini was born on 9 November 1914 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Io uccido, tu uccidi (1965), Il capitano di Venezia (1952) and The Seven Cervi Brothers (1968). He died on 3 December 1968 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Corrado Alvaro was born on 15 April 1895 in San Luca, Calabria, Italy. He was a writer, known for We the Living (1942), Tragic Hunt (1947) and Affairs of Maupassant (1935). He was married to Laura Babini. He died on 11 June 1956 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
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Ivo Perilli was born on 10 April 1902 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and assistant director, known for Tempest (1958), La primadonna (1943) and Ragazzo (1934). He was married to Lia Corelli. He died on 24 November 1994 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Franco Monicelli is known for Lasciateci in pace (1953), Marco Visconti (1975) and Sorelle Materassi (1972).
- Vitaliano Brancati was born on 24 July 1907 in Pachino, Sicily, Italy. He was a writer, known for Anni facili (1953), Journey to Italy (1954) and Don Cesare di Bazan (1942). He was married to Anna Proclemer. He died on 25 September 1954 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy.
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Brunello Rondi was born on 26 November 1924 in Tirano, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for 8½ (1963), La Dolce Vita (1960) and Il demonio (1963). He died on 7 November 1989 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Vasco Pratolini was born on 19 October 1913 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. He was a writer, known for Rocco and His Brothers (1960), Family Diary (1962) and The Four Days of Naples (1962). He died on 12 January 1991 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
- Sergio Atzeni was a writer, known for Il figlio di Bakunin (1997) and Pretty Butterflies (2012). He died on 6 September 1995 in Carloforte, Sardinia, Italy.
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Vincenzo Cerami was born on 2 November 1940 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and actor, known for Life Is Beautiful (1997), The Tiger and the Snow (2005) and Open Doors (1990). He was married to Mimsy Farmer and Graziella Chiarcossi. He died on 17 July 2013 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Pietro Germi was born on 14 September 1914 in Genoa, Liguria, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Railroad Man (1956), Divorce Italian Style (1961) and The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (1966). He was married to Olga D'Aiello and Anna Bancio. He died on 5 December 1974 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Writer
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Alfredo Giannetti was born on 16 April 1924 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Divorce Italian Style (1961), Day by Day, Desperately (1961) and The Facts of Murder (1959). He died on 30 July 1995 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.