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- Actress
- Additional Crew
Matilda De Angelis is an Italian actress and singer. Her credits include the films Italian Race and Rose Island, and the television miniseries "The Undoing" and "The Law According to Lidia Poet." She started playing guitar and violin at the age of thirteen. She attended the Liceo Scientifico (science high school) "Enrico Fermi" in Bologna. In 2011, De Angelis began singing in the band Rumba De Bodas. The band also recorded an album, Karnaval Fou, which was released in 2014.- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Blue-eyed and well-built Italian actor in international cinema, Franco Nero, was a painting photographer when he was discovered as an actor by director John Huston. He has since appeared in more than 200 movies around the world, working with Europe's top directors, such as Luis Buñuel, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Claude Chabrol, Sergey Bondarchuk, Michael Cacoyannis, Elio Petri, Marco Bellocchio, Enzo G. Castellari, among many others.
Nero was born in Parma (Northern Italy), in the family of a strict police sergeant. His inclination for acting had already become obvious in his teenage years, when he began organizing and participating in student plays. After a short stint at a leading theater school, he moved to Rome, where he joined a small group of friends for the purpose of making documentaries. Still unsure of his ultimate vocation, he worked various jobs on the crew. He studied economics and trade in Milan University, and appeared in popular Italian photo-novels. This gave him a chance to gain a little role in Carlo Lizzani's La Celestina P... R... (1965).
A year later, the handsome face of Nero was noticed by Huston, who chose him for the role of "Abel" in The Bible in the Beginning... (1966) (aka La Bibbia). But success came after he got the role of the lonely gunfighter, dragging a coffin, in one of the best spaghetti-westerns; Sergio Corbucci's Django (1966). Nero then filmed a few other westerns of that style as Ferdinando Baldi's Texas, Adios (1966) and Lucio Fulci's Massacre Time (1966).
In 1967, Joshua Logan cast him in the film version of the musical Camelot (1967) (Warner Bros.), opposite Vanessa Redgrave, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe award. During filming of Camelot, he met actress Vanessa Redgrave, who become his long-time partner (they married decades later). He played with Catherine Deneuve in Luis Buñuel's Tristana (1970) and was directed by Sergey Bondarchuk in the war drama The Battle of Neretva (1969). Later, director Bondarchuk cast Nero for the role of famous American reporter "John Reed" in two-part "Krasnye kolokola II" (1982). In the late 60s and during the 70s, Nero played many different roles, but most of them connected with political and criminal genre, which criticized the Italian justice system.
In the early 80s, Nero was chosen for the role of the white ninja, "Cole", in Enter the Ninja (1981) and in 1990 as terrorist "Gen. Esperanza", opposite Bruce Willis, in Renny Harlin's Die Hard 2 (1990). He has also payed the roles of leading national heroes, such as "Garibaldi" (Italy), "Arpad" (Hungary), and "Banovic Strahinja" (Yugoslavia). In the USA, he has been in successful mini-series, such as "The Pirate" (Warner Bros), "The Last Days of Pompeii" (CBS), "Young Catherine" (TNT), "Bella Mafia" (CBS), "The Painted Lady", "Saint Augustine", and movies such as "The Legend of Valentino", "21 Hours to Munich", "Force 10 from Navarone", "Enter the Ninja", "The Versace Murder", and Letters to Juliet (2010).
He worked with the top European directors from Carlo Lizzani, Damiano Damiani, Luigi Zampa, Luis Buñuel, Elio Petri, Michael Cacoyannis, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Claude Chabrol, 'Vatroslav Mimica', Marco Bellocchio, etc. At the beginning of the 80s, he also began producing, writing and directing. Between films, he participates in various theatrical events.
Apart from his cinematographic work, Nero also works for charitable organizations. Over the last 45 years, he has been a benefactor of the Don Bosco orphanage in Tivoli. He has received many awards and, in 1992 for his artistic merits, a knighthood of the Italian Republic was bestowed on him by the President of Italy. In 2011, he was honored by Brunel University of London with the honorary degree of doctor of Letters honoris causa and, in Toronto, with a star on the Walk of Fame.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
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
- Director
- Producer
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.- Serena Grandi was born on 23 March 1958 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. She is an actress, known for The Great Beauty (2013), Miranda (1985) and Donne sottotetto (Centro storico) (1992). She was previously married to Beppe Ercole.
- Writer
- Director
- Actor
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.- Benjamin Mascolo was born on 20 June 1993 in Modena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He is an actor, known for Time Is Up (2021), Game of Love (2022) and Ben: Respira.
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- Editor
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.- Actor
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- Director
Rossano Brazzi was an Italian stage and film actor. He was married to Lydia Brazzi until her death, and to Ilse Fischer, his second wife, until his death.
He's most familiar to English-speaking audiences for his role as Emile De Becque in South Pacific (1958), playing opposite Mitzi Gaynor.
He died in Rome of complications following a neural virus, on December 24, 1994.- Writer
- Director
- Actor
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.- Full name - Nicholetta Rangoni Machiavelli. The first role in the movie - Domenikangela Piras in the film of Luigi Zampa "The Question of Honor" (1965). In 1969, she was nominated for the German Academy Award as the best actress in the film "How Much Does a Man Need?" / Scarabea - wieviel Erde braucht der Mensch? " (1969). Machiavelli played in the films of Italian and French directors - Alberto Lattuada, Liliana Cavani, Carlo Lizzani, Dino Risi, Andrzej Zoulawski, Georges Lautner. After the year 1983, she did not act in films. In 1978 she became an adherent of Osho's teachings, lived in Rajnespuram ( USA). In 1985 she settled in Seattle (USA), where she taught in the college and gave private lessons in the Italian language. She passed away on November 15, 2015 in Seattle, Washington, USA.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
One of France's most beloved character stars from the 1950s through and including the 1980s was the Italian-born Lino Ventura. Born Angiolino Joseph Pascal Ventura to Giovanni Ventura and Luisa Borrini, on July 14, 1919, in Parma (northern) Italy, young Lino moved with his family at a young age to Paris, where he grew up. A school dropout at age eight, Lino drifted from job to job (mechanic's apprentice, etc.), unable to decide on what to do for a living. Marrying in 1942 at age 23, he and wife Odette Ventura had four children.
Lino finally found a career calling as a Greek/Roman-styled wrestler and went on to become a professional European champion in 1950. He was forced to abandon this sporting life, however, after incurring a serious injury in the ring. Looking for gangster types for his next film, director Jacques Becker gave the inexperienced 34-year-old his first acting job as bad guy support to star Jean Gabin in the crime thriller Touchez pas au grisbi (1954) [Grisbi]. Gabin was impressed and did more than just encourage Lino to pursue acting as a living. Lino went on to appear with Gabin in several of the star's subsequent movies, often playing a gangster, including Razzia (1955) [Razzia], Crime and Punishment (1956), Speaking of Murder (1957) [Crime and Punishment] and Inspector Maigret (1958) [Inspector Maigret].
A tough, brutish, burly-framed presence, Lino came into his own as a tough-nut character star in the 1960s playing both sides of the moral fence. Adept in both light comedy and dark-edged drama, he appeared in scores of films now considered classic French cinema. His homely, craggy-looking mug took the form of various criminals types as in Second Wind (1966) [Second Breath] and Happy New Year (1973) [Happy New Year], as well as dogged, good-guy inspectors in The French Detective (1975) [The French Detective], Illustrious Corpses (1976) [Illustrious Corpses'], and The Grilling (1981). Lino bore a patented weight-of-the-world-on-his-shoulders countenance that audiences sympathized with, even when playing the arch-villain. Over the course of three decades he built up an impressive gallery of blue-collar protagonists. Not to be missed are his embittered, vengeful husband in Witness in the City (1959) [Witness in the City]; corrupt police chief Tiger Brown in Three Penny Opera (1963) [The Threepenny Opera]; a WWII French Resistance fighter in Army of Shadows (1969) [Army in the Shadows]; and Mafia boss Vito Genovese in Charles Bronson's The Valachi Papers (1972), among many, many others. Toward the end of his career he played Jean Valjean in a French production of Les Misérables (1982) for which he received a Cesar award nomination (i.e, the French "Oscar"). He performed practically until the time of his fatal heart attack in 1987 at age 68 in his beloved France. Survivors included his wife of 45 years and children. Daughter Mylene died in a plane crash in 1998 and wife Odette died in 2013.- Actor
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- Director
Stefano Accorsi got his diploma from the School of Theater in Bologna. He divides his time between theater, cinema, and television. Currently he is the Artistic Director of the Theater Foundation of Tuscany. He was appointed Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) by the French Ministry of Culture. His movies include: Jack Frusciante è uscito dal gruppo (Jack Frusciante Has Left the Band) by Enza Negroni, I piccoli maestri (Little Teachers) by Daniele Luchetti, Ormai è fatta! (Outlaw) by Enzo Monteleone (Grolla d'Oro Award), Un uomo perbene (A Respectable Man) by Maurizio Zaccaro (Grolla d'Oro), Capitaes de Abril (April Captains) by Maria de Medeiros, Come quando fuori piove by Mario Monicelli, Radiofreccia (Radio Arrow) and Made in Italy by Luciano Ligabue (David di Donatello, Amidei Award and Ciak d'Oro), L'ultimo bacio (The Last Kiss), Baciami ancora (Kiss Me Again) and A casa tutti bene (There's No Place like Home) by Gabriele Muccino, Saturno contro (Saturn in Opposition), Le fate ignoranti (The Ignorant Fairies) and La Dea Fortuna (The Goddess of Fortune) by Ferzan Ozpetek (Nastro d'Argento, Ciak d'Oro and Globo d'Oro from the foreign press in Italy), La stanza del figlio (The Son's Room) by Nanni Moretti, Santa Maradona by Marco Ponti, Romanzo criminale (Crime Novel) and Un viaggio chiamato amore (A Scandalous Journey / A Journey Called Love) by Michele Placido (Coppa Volpi Best Actor at the 59th Venice Film Festival), Tous le soleils by Philippe Claudel, Veloce come il vento (Italian Race) by Matteo Rovere (David di Donatello, Nastro d'Argento, 2016 FICE Award Actor of the Year), Fortunata directed by Sergio Castellitto (Ciak d'Oro Best Actor). He debuted in directing with the short film Io non ti conosco, produced by Yoox Group that he also acted in (2014 Nastro d'Argento Best NewDirector). For Sky Italia, the series 1992 and the sequels 1993 and 1994 directed by Giuseppe Gagliardi, of which he is the creator and actor. Also for Sky in association with HBO, The Young Pope by Paolo Sorrentino.- Actress
- Producer
Nicoletta Braschi was born on 19 April 1960 in Cesena, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. She is an actress and producer, known for Life Is Beautiful (1997), Happy as Lazzaro (2018) and Johnny Stecchino (1991). She has been married to Roberto Benigni since December 1991.- Actress
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
She won a beauty pageant and attended il Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (The Center for Experimental Cinematography). In 1956, she received an offer to go to Hollywood and attend the Actor's Studio but didn't take the offer for undisclosed reasons.
She began her film career at the age of 15 with a role in the film I pinguini ci guardano (1955) (The Penguins Watch Us) in which the animals at the zoo watched the humans around them and cultivated some very interesting thoughts. Many sources, however, list her first film as Mogli pericolose (1958). She is uncredited in this comedy which was directed by Luigi Comencini.
Neri was also much in demand for erotic films. She played Zoe, in Jesús Franco's 99 Women (1969), a movie about women in prison who must turn to each other for comfort while dealing with a sadistic warden. In 1971 she was Eleanor Stuart, Farley Granger's 'wife' in Amuck! (1972).- Actress
- Producer
Isabella Fogliazza in art Isabella Ferrari, was born in Ponte Dell'Olio. She debut in 1982 with the film "Sapore di Mare" directed by Carlo Vanzina and in 1983 in "Sapore di Mare 2", so her career took off and started participate in many cult comedies of the 80s such as: "Appuntamento a Liverpool" , "Chewingum" , "Il Ragazzo del Poni Express". In 1989 she starred in the film "Willi Signori e Vengo da lontano" directed by Francesco Nuti, in 1995 she worked on "Cronaca di un amore violato" directed by Giacomo Battiato, inspire by the book by Anna Maria Pellegrino "Diario di uno stupratore". The next year she works with Sergio Castellitto in "Hotel di Paura". In 1997 she was engaged by a French production in Alexandre Arcady's film "K" An important time in her artistic career is represented by "Romanzo di un Giovane Povero" with Alberto Sordi and directed by Ettore Scola, she won the Coppa Volpi Award (Venice International Film Festival) for best supporting actress. In 1998 she was in an Italian-French Production "Dolce far Niente", a comedy set in the 1800s followed by "Vajont" and "La lingua del Santo " directed by Carlo Mazzacurati. Throughout the years she participated as a protagonist in the television series "Distretto di Polizia", where she plays the police commissioner Giovanna Scalise, directed by her husband Renato De Maria and Antonello Grimaldi and then the mini-series "Liberi di Giocare", beside Pierfrancesco Favino. In 2005 she is the protagonist in the movie "Amatemi" by Renato de Maria and "Arrivederci Amore ciao" by Michele Soavi. She starred in the film "Vite Sospese" by Marco Turco, "Il Seme della Discordia" by Pappi Corsicato, "Saturno Contro" and "Un giorno Perfetto" by Ferzan Ozpetek (where she won the Pasinetti Award for the best actress), "Due partite" by Enzo Monteleone and then in the film "Caos Calmo" by Antonello Grimaldi. In 2006 she is in theaters with "Due Partite" by Cristina Comencini and "Il Catalogo" with Ennio Fantastichini, by Jean Claude Carriere and directed by Valerio Binasco. She participated in the show "Anestesia Totale" with Marco Travaglio and always with the latter he goes on stage in Italian theaters with "È Stato la Mafia". She had a cameo in the movie "To Rome with Love" by Woody Allen. In 2010 she returns to television with the Italian-German miniseries "Nel Bianco" based on the novel by Ken Follett and in the tv-film "Storia di Laura" by Andrea Porporati. In 2013 she is directed by Paolo Sorrentino in the Oscar-winning film "The Great Beauty". She also appears in Antonio Morabito's movie "Il Venditore di Medicine" and in the following year is one of the protagonists in Renato de Maria's movie "La Vita Oscena", presented at the International Venice Film Festival in the Horizons category. In 2017 she works again with Ferzan Ozpetek in "Napoli Velata", and then appears in "In Viaggio con Adele" by Alessandro Capitani and "Euphoria" by Valeria Golino. From 2018-2020 she is in the Netflix series "Baby" directed by Andrea De Sica, Anna Negri and Letizia Lamartire. She also appears in "Sotto I l Sole di Riccione" by Antonio Usbergo and Niccolò Celaia. In 2022 she appears in "La Mia Ombra è Tua" by Eugenio Cappuccio, "Sotto I l Sole di Amalfi" by Martina Pastori and Renato de Maria's movie "Rapiniamo I l Duce". In 2023 she worked on the tv series "Alfonso" by Eros Puglielli- Saul Nanni was born on 4 February 1999 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He is an actor, known for Brado (2022), Love & Gelato (2022) and Under the Riccione Sun (2020).
- Lorenzo Adorni was born on 15 October 1992 in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He is an actor, known for Adagio (2023), L'amor fuggente and Il cacciatore (2018).
- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Born in Bologna, she is an actress and photographer. She has acted, among others, for Michelangelo Antonioni, Liliana Cavani, Marco Tullio Giordana, Gus Van Sant, and Mia Handsen-Love. In 2008 she began to exhibit her photography; in 2011 she was at the Biennale di Venezia, in 2014 her first solo exhibit in Tokyo. She debuted as a director In 2000 with the short Per sempre, which was in competition at the 57a Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica di Venezia, and won the Nastro d'Argento Prize.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Born in San Giorgio di Piano, Giulietta Masina spent part of her teenage years living with a widowed aunt in Rome, where she cultivated a passion for the theater and studied for a degree in Philosophy. She began her career on the radio with the program "Terzoglio" (1942), about the adventures of newlyweds Cico and Pallina from scripts written by Federico Fellini. The series brought her great success. The following year she married Fellini and became the inspirational muse for many of his films.
She made her cinema debut in Without Pity (1948), directed by Alberto Lattuada, but really established her reputation with her next few films: Behind Closed Shutters (1951), directed by Luigi Comencini, Variety Lights (1950), which also marked Fellini's debut as director (the film credits both Fellini and Lattuada); and Europe '51 (1952), directed by Roberto Rossellini. Her artistic partnership with her husband really took off with the Oscar-winning The Road (1954), followed by The Swindle (1955) and the widely acclaimed Nights of Cabiria (1957), which again won an Oscar and brought her the award for Best Female Performance at the Cannes Film Festival. Over the following years she played many memorable roles in such films as Fortunella (1958), directed by Eduardo De Filippo; ...and the Wild Wild Women (1959), directed by Renato Castellani; and later in Juliet of the Spirits (1965) and Ginger & Fred (1986), both directed by Fellini.
From 1966 to 1969 she hosted the immensely popular radio show "Lettere aperte a Giulietta Masina" and starred in the television series Eleonora (1973), by Tullio Pinelli, directed by Silverio Blasi, and Camilla (1976), directed by Sandro Bolchi, based on the novel by Fausta Cialente, "Un inverno freddissimo" (1966).
She died in Rome in 1994, just a few months after the death of her husband.- Actor
- Camera and Electrical Department
Gabriele Tinti was born on 22 August 1932 in Molinella, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was an actor, known for Endgame - Bronx lotta finale (1983), The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) and Le sette spade del vendicatore (1962). He was married to Laura Gemser and Norma Bengell. He died on 12 November 1991 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Ida Galli was born on 8 October 1939 in Sestola, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. She is an actress, known for The Psychic (1977), La Dolce Vita (1960) and The Leopard (1963).
- Director
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- Additional Crew
Liliana Cavani was born on 12 January 1933 in Carpi, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. She is a director and writer, known for L'ospite (1971), Dove siete? Io sono qui (1993) and The Night Porter (1974).- Writer
- Actor
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was born in Predappio, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was the son of Alessandro Mussolini, a socialist, and Rosa Maltoni, a devout Catholic schoolteacher. In 1915, Mussolini married Donna Rachele Guidi. Together, they had five children. On October 31, 1922, at the age of 39, Mussolini became the Prime Minister of Italy. He was removed from power and placed under arrest by order of King Victor Emmanuel III in July 1943, but two months later was rescued by the Germans and installed as the puppet leader of a German client state, the Italian Social Republic. On April 28, 1945, Mussolini was shot dead by Italian Communists in Giulino di Mezzegra, Lombardy, Italy and his corpse was hung by its feet. He was 61 years old.- Actress
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- Additional Crew
Laura Betti was born on 1 May 1927 in Casalecchio di Reno, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. She was an actress and writer, known for 1900 (1976), La Dolce Vita (1960) and Teorema (1968). She died on 31 July 2004 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Actor
- Director
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Luciano Pavarotti was a best-selling classical singer and humanitarian known for his most original and popular performances with the 'Three Tenors' and 'Pavarotti & Friends'.
He was born on October 12, 1935, in Modena, Emilia-Romagna, in Northern Italy. He was the first child and only son of two children in the family of a baker. His father, Fernando Pavarotti, was a gifted amateur tenor, who instilled a love for music and singing in young Luciano. His mother, Adele Venturi, worked at the local cigar factory. Young Pavarotti showed many talents. He first sang with his father in the Corale Rossi, a male choir in Modena, and won the first prize in an international choir competition in Wales, UK. He also played soccer as a goalkeeper for his town's junior team.
In 1954, at the age of 19, Pavarotti decided to make a career as a professional opera singer. He took serious study with professional tenor Arrio Pola, who discovered that Pavarotti had perfect pitch, and offered to teach him for free. After six years of studies, he had only a few performances in small towns without pay. At that time Pavarotti supported himself working as a part-time school teacher and later an insurance salesman. In 1961 he married his girlfriend, singer Adua Veroni, and the couple had three daughters.
Pavarotti made his operatic debut on April 29, 1961, as Rodolfo in La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini, at the opera house in Reggio Emilia. In the following years he relied on the professional advise from tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano, who prevented Pavarotti from appearances when his voice was not ready yet. Eventually Pavarotti stepped in for Di Stefano in 1963, at the Royal Opera House in London as 'Rodolfo' in La Boheme by Giacomo Puccini, making his international debut. That same year he met soprano Joan Sutherland and the two began one of the most legendary partnerships in vocal history; Pavarotti made his American debut opposite Sutherland in February of 1965, at the Miami Opera.
Pavarotti was blessed with a voice of rare range, beauty and clarity, which was best during the 60s, 70s and 80s. In 1966 he became the first opera tenor to hit all nine "high C's" with his full voice in the aria 'Quel destin' in 'La Fille du Regiment' (aka.. The Daughter of the Regiment) by Gaetano Donizetti. He repeated this feat in his legendary 1972 Met performance and was nicknamed "King of the High C's" in rave reviews. Pavarotti's popularity was arguably bigger than that of any other living tenor in the world. His 1993 live performance in New York's Central Park was attended by 500,000 fans while millions watched it on television. During the 1990s and 2000s Pavarotti was still showing the ability to deliver his clear ringing tone in the higher register, albeit in fewer performances.
Luciano Pavarotti was also known for his humanitarian work. He was the founder and host of the 'Pavarotti & Friends' annual charity concerts and related activities in Modena, Italy. There he sang with international stars of all styles to raise funds for several worthy UN causes. Pavarotti sang with Bono and U2 in the 1995 song Miss Sarajevo and raised $1,500,000 in his charity project 'Concert for Bosnia'. He also established and financed the Pavarotti Music Center in Bosnia, and raised funds in charity concerts for refugees from Afghanistan and Kosovo. Pavarotti made two Guinness World Records: one was for receiving the most curtain calls at 165; and the other was for the best selling classical album of 'The Three Tenors in Concert' with Plácido Domingo and José Carreras.
In March 2004 Pavarotti gave his last performance in an opera as the painter Mario Cavaradossi in Giacomo Puccini's 'Tosca' at the New York Metropolitan Opera. In 2005 Luciano Pavarotti started a 40 city farewell tour. He sang his signature aria 'Nessun Dorma' from 'Turandot' by Giacomo Puccini, at the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Turin, Italy, on February 10, 2006. Pavarotti survived an emergency surgery for pancreatic cancer. His remaining appearances for 2006 had to be canceled. However, his management anticipated that his farewell tour would resume in 2007.
Luciano Pavarotti died of kidney failure on September 6, 2007, at his home in Modena, Italy, surrounded by his family. He was laid to rest with his parents in the family tomb in Montale Rangone cemetery near Modena. His funeral ceremony was an international event attended by celebrities and over fifty thousand music lovers from all over the world.- One of the most famous play-boy of the fabulous 60's & early 70's. He was lover and partner of the most beautiful woman of his times, Brigitte Bardot, Veruska, Dominque Sanda, Fiona Lewis, Isa Stoppi and some more. Saint-Tropez became in 60's his general quarter. He moved to Argentina in mid 70's, where he become a farmer with a quite remarkable success.
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Pupi Avati was born on 3 November 1938 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He is a writer and director, known for Gli amici del bar Margherita (2009), Giovanna's Father (2008) and The Story of Boys & Girls (1989). He has been married to Amelia Turri since 1964. They have three children.- Actor
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The notably gifted, multi-talented actor, chanteur, poet and painter Serge Reggiani was born in Reggio Emilia, a town in northern Italy, in 1922. His father, a highly visible anti-fascist, fled his Mussolini-dictated homeland due to his fervent political activities and emigrated to France in order to protect his family. Serge learned to speak fluent French and developed an interest in athletics, particularly boxing, but went an entirely different route altogether by following in his father's footsteps as a hair stylist.
In 1937, his career path changed yet again when he was accepted into the Conservatoire des Arts Cinematographiques. After graduation, he landed a few minor roles in both films and theatre and enrolled at the prestigious Conservatoire National d'Art Dramatique in 1939 wherein he won numerous acting awards. Though he earned a reputation for himself in the Paris theatre world, Reggiani was more interested in movie-making and would thereafter focus his attention toward the big screen.
During the filming of Le carrefour des enfants perdus (1944) [Children of Chaos], he met and subsequently married actress Janine Darcey, which produced two children: Stephan (1946) and Carine (1951). After obtaining French citizenship in 1948, he went on to secure a name for himself in Gallic cinema with roles in Gates of the Night (1946) [Gates of the Night], Manon (1949), The Lovers of Verona (1949) [The Lovers of Verona], La Ronde (1950) and Casque d'Or (1952). Following his divorce, he married actress Annie Noël and fathered three children: Celia (1958), Simon (1961) and Maria (1963). In 1959 Reggiani introduced a distinctive singing talent on radio and, following film roles in The Informer (1962) and The Leopard (1963) [The Leopard], launched his musical career at age 43.
Reggiani released his award-winning debut album in 1965 and it proved to be such a major hit with both the French public and the critics that singing became a prime career. Surprisingly, the middle-aged, deep-voiced balladeer would strike a chord with the younger politically left generation of the late 60s. A second album produced in 1967, plus a left-wing concert with the legendary Jacques Brel, clenched his popularity with teenagers. He began to extend himself internationally while continuing a healthy album output.
Children Stephan and Carine actively developed their own singing careers and Reggiani performed on the concert stage with them in encouragement but with lackluster results. Son Stephan, completely overshadowed by his father, took this extremely hard and in 1980 (July, 29) committed suicide at the family home in Mougins. He was only 33. Devastated, Reggiani withdrew from the music scene for a while to recover from his grief and would battle bouts of depression and alcoholism for much of his remaining life. Divorced from his second wife in 1973, he met actress Noëlle Adam in the 1980s and they lived in partnership for over 20 years, she becoming a lasting source of strength for him in dealing with his personal tragedies.
Reggiani's later years would be more or less spent in seclusion, finding one last passion in painting. He displayed his works at his first exhibition in 1989. After performing in concert to mark the 25th anniversary of his singing career, Reggiani found the strength to return to the French music scene with a brand new album. At age 70+, he successfully recorded and was welcomed back to the concert stage with great applause. Though his acting career had calmed down a great deal since his singing heyday erupted, he did star in De force avec d'autres (1992) [For the Love of Others], a film written and directed by son Simon Reggiani that also featured Ms. Adam.
Serge married his longtime partner, Noëlle Adam, in March of 2003; he died of a heart attack at his Paris home a little over a year later at age 82. Although little known here in the U.S., unlike chanson stylists Yves Montand and Jacques Brel, the acclaimed Reggiani has nevertheless reached legendary proportions in France and Europe.- Liana Orfei was primarily a circus performer. The daughter of circus owner Paride Orfei (aka 'Pippo') and his wife Alba Furide, she started in the business at the age of 2 as a pint-sized clown named Lacrima. She grew up to become an expert trapeze artist, acrobat, juggler and animal trainer, married (from 1954) to a fellow juggler named Angelo Piccinelli. Along with her two brothers, Liana organized her own three-ring circus in 1962. In 1970, this enterprise had mushroomed into the Circorama extravaganza which featured top acts and numerous exotic animals, interspersed with interludes of films projected onto a cinemascope screen.
Liana entered the movie business in 1959, followed a year later by her older sister Moira. Moira Orfei, likewise steeped in the world of circus, was popularly dubbed 'Moira of the elephants'. Both siblings went on to act in many peplum and escapist adventure films, often with 'touring' American stars. Liana provided many an exotic, sultry diversion, especially for Lex Barker in the swashbuckling trio Terror of the Red Mask (1960), Knight of 100 Faces (1960) and Pirates of the Coast (1960); and for Kirk Morris in Hercules in the Valley of Woe (1961). She was also the incongruously cast Victor Mature's Viking wife in The Tartars (1961), an Atlantean queen in The Giant of Metropolis (1961), a pirate's faithful Creole companion in Rage of the Buccaneers (1961), the ruler of an Italic tribe in The Avenger (1962) (starring Steve Reeves), an Egyptian in Queen of the Nile (1961) and a Greek in Damon and Pythias (1962). Her main contribution to the spaghetti western genre was Django Kills Softly (1967), in which a blonde Liana played the titular hero's goldmine-owning love interest, held captive by an evil town boss. In one of her final appearances (Federico Fellini's The Clowns (1970)), she played a character purportedly based on herself.
Liana retired from acting in the mid-80s but remained very much involved with the circus. Along with her producer-husband Paolo Pristipino, she staged the Golden Circus Festival in Rome's Teatro Tendastrisce from 1984, featuring many top acts. - Actress
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She was born Scilla Gabellini, one of five siblings, in Rimini on the Adriatic coast. Scilla initially studied law at Oxford University, graduating with a doctorate. Her interest in pursuing a legal career waned quickly, however, since her next move was a return to Italy for acting classes at Rome's Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica. At the age of seventeen, the voluptuous, blue-eyed Scilla became a body double for Sophia Loren (to whom she bore more than a passing resemblance), notably in the classic Boy on a Dolphin (1957). Two years later, she underwent cosmetic surgery to look less like Sophia in order to forge her own screen image.
In 1963, Scilla featured on the cover of several magazines, including Playboy, the Milanese publication Le Ore and Parade (at the time, the most widely read weekly in the U.S.). Though she went on to command leads in a number of films during the 60s, Scilla tended to be typecast in roles which emphasized her physical attributes, rather than her acting ability. She appeared most often in genre films, anything from innocuous sex comedies (Genitori in blue-jeans (1960), How to Seduce a Playboy (1966)) to swashbuckling costume dramas (The Queen of the Pirates (1960)), and from spaghetti westerns (Djurado (1966)) to peplum spectacles (Colossus of the Arena (1962), La vendetta di Spartacus (1964)). After 1971, she was afforded more challenging and critically acclaimed roles as a star in Italian TV miniseries.
Eleven years after leaving the screen, Scilla attracted media attention as a result of the murder of her 87-year old landlord father Giuseppe, by a crazed tenant at his villa on the via Campi di Torre Flavia in Ladispoli.- Actress
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Carlotta Sofia Montanari is an Italian actress American citizen, born in Rimini, Italy. Raised in Riccione, a seaside city of northern Italy, she made her professional artistic debut at an early age acting and hosting for major national networks and appearing in commercials and films. As a child, she originally wanted to work with animals, possibly a veterinarian or professional horseback rider and trainer. She has carried her passion for animals and horses into her adulthood and it remains one of the biggest pleasures of her life.
Due to the separation of her parents Carlotta, along with her brother, spent much of her childhood at her family's countryside home with her grandparents, where she was surrounded by animals and developed a deep connection and respect for animals and nature.
Growing up with big artistic aspirations she wanted to becoming an actress and filmmaker, and later she studied and graduated with a Master of Visual Arts at The Federico Fellini Institute. Thereafter, she continues her studies with journalism and communication sciences to broaden her skill base. After her graduation Carlotta was still searching for her calling until she was invited to join an intensive acting seminar based on the methods of Konstantin Stanislavski and Lee Strasberg. This form of creative expression was an immediate connection, and she felt that acting would be her lifetime companion and a healing playground. The desire to work professionally and measure herself further as an actor inspired her to move to Rome to train in theatre full time. In Rome, Carlotta worked also as a television host and writer.
Driven by her aspiration to work with the masters of the acting craft, Carlotta left Rome for Los Angeles to further her career. Shortly after earning her first acting role, she was invited to the prestigious The Actors Studio moderated by Hollywood legends and mentors Martin Landau, Salome Jens, Mark Rydell and Lou Antonio. She also worked with teachers such as Penny Allen and Allan Miller.
As a versatile actress, Carlotta has acted in several Hollywood feature films and TV shows. She also has appeared in television and print commercials, and her artistic work includes voice over and dubbing.
As a versatile actress, Carlotta has acted in several Hollywood feature films and TV shows. She also has appeared in television and print commercials, and her artistic work includes voice over and dubbing. In 2019 decided to combine her creativity and knowledge of for the film industry, and her passion for horses, and her love and connection with them altogether and gave life to Four Legs On Set, that became the first equine agency in Hollywood. The journey started with her skills with horses and natural riding and tricks skills, and her visions and creativity in her pocket; during the pandemic and lock downs Carlotta fully dedicated her time to her connection with her horses and started creating more art and performances with them, and before she knew Four Legs On Set began providing horses for historic Chanel, Kardashians, many Magazines, and various Music artists such as Becky G a and Beyoncé, and actors. Four Legs On Set is very selective on the roles for its horses, are allowed only positive physically and psychologically experiences for horses, they always come first for Carlotta, and t is all about fun and making art. Carlotta had a vision for the American Dream and hard work and dedication did the rest.
Carlotta is a compassionate animal rights advocate and philanthropist, including helping the less fortunate in her community, WWF, leukemia and MS research, and associations against domestic abuse. She is an active volunteer and supporter of several dog and horse rescue organizations in Southern California.- Director
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Gianfranco Mingozzi was born on 5 April 1932 in Molinella, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Sequestro di persona (1968), The Last Three Days (1977) and La Dolce Vita (1960). He died on 7 October 2009 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Eva Robins was born on 10 December 1958 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. She is an actress, known for Tenebrae (1982), The Adventures of Hercules (1985) and Hercules (1983).
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Peter Arpesella is an award winning actor and writer, and published author. His family owned the Grand Hotel of Rimini where he grew up. Federico Felini, who portrayed the Grand Hotel in his Oscar winning film "Amarcord," was a dear family friend, always welcomed at the hotel, as if his home, when in his native town. After his father's early death Peter worked as an investment banker in New York. Then he went to therapy and became an actor and writer. He lives in Los Angeles.- Music Artist
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Laura Pausini is one of the most successful and admired Italian artist around the world, with over 70 million albums sold, several songs performed in six languages, and multiple awards under her belt including a GRAMMY - becoming the first Italian female artist to win this award - four Latin Grammys, a Golden Globe for "Best Original Song", and an Oscar nomination in 2021, to name a few. The award-winning international recording artist, singer-songwriter, and producer made her debut in Italy when winning the prestigious Sanremo Festival in 1993 at the age of 18. She went on to successfully release thirteen studio albums worldwide, both in Italian and Spanish versions, with songs performed in six languages, including English. Throughout her career, Laura Pausini has performed and collaborated with some of the most recognized music artists in the world such as Luciano Pavarotti, Andrea Bocelli, Michael Bublé, Ray Charles, Phil Collins, Shakira, Mariah Carey, Charles Aznavour, Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, Kylie Minogue, Alejandro Sanz, Céline Dion and Michael Jackson, among others. In addition, Madonna wrote a song for her in 2004. She has toured and performed in some of the most prestigious stages in the world, such as Madison Square Garden and City Music Hall in New York, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the San Siro Stadium in Milan (she was the first female artist to have performed a sold-out concert at this venue), the Circus Maximus in Rome and the Olympia in Paris. Her massive success in music crossed over TV as well when she became one of the coaches and winner of Spain's and Mexico's edition of La Voz (The Voice). She was also one of the judges responsible for forming the band CNCO for La Banda, the Latin talent show created by Simon Cowell, which earned her an Emmy Award nomination. In addition, she won Spain's "XFactor" with her pupil Pol Granch, and also created and co-wrote two shows for Italian TV: "Stasera Laura" and "Laura e Paola". Laura has dedicated her life to helping others especially when it comes to children in need. She became a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN World Food Programme, and contributed to fundraising events, concerts, and projects in support of various causes. Among the causes are Chime For Change, Save the Children, Croce Rossa Italiana, ILoveBeirut, OHM Live, One Humanity Live, and International Peace Honors - a global event created by Peace Tech Lab, to recognize and celebrate the commitment of the most influential international activist of our period that were on the front line to transmit messages of peace for a better future - are included. Further fundraising events are the Music Against Child Labour Competition, Amiche per l'Abruzzo, which was a fundraising concert for the victims of the earthquake in the Abruzzo Italian region, and Voices Unidas for Chile. Moreover, she participated in the recording of "Todo para ti", a song written and performed by Michael Jackson for the families of the victims of the September 11th attacks in New York. Laura's latest collaboration in 2020 was with the acclaimed singer-songwriter Diane Warren with the song "Io Sì (Seen)", the main track of Netflix's film "The Life Ahead", which marked the return to the screen of the beloved Italian actress Sophia Loren. "Io Si" went on to receive several awards in 2021 including a Golden Globe in the Best Original Song category, a Hollywood Music in Media Awards in the Best Outstanding Song - Feature Film category, a Satellite Award, a Nastri d'argento, and a nomination to the Oscars, Laura's first-ever nomination to the prestigious award.- Tobia De Angelis was born on 19 April 2000 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He is an actor, known for The Crypt Monster (2021), Vite in fuga (2020) and Love & Gelato (2022).
- Elisabetta Cavallotti was born on 1 July 1967 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. She is an actress, known for Dentro la città (2004), Vivere non è un gioco da ragazzi (2023) and I laureati (1995).
- Paola Pitagora was born on 24 August 1941 in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. She is an actress, known for Fists in the Pocket (1965), Unknown Woman (1969) and I promessi sposi (1967).
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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.- Claudio Cassinelli was born on 29 September 1938 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was an actor, known for I guerrieri dell'anno 2072 (1984), The Suspicious Death of a Minor (1975) and Hercules (1983). He was married to Irene Bignardi. He died on 12 July 1985 in Page, Arizona, USA.
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Gabriel Lo Giudice is an actor known for Atlanta (2016), Il signor Diavolo (2019), Leonardo (2021) and Bad Habits Die Hard (2020).
He founded London-based production company Pinzutu Films, and his films as a producer include Enjoy (2021), which premiered at Tribeca Festival and won Best UK Short at Raindance, and Vert (2019), winner of the Special Jury Award at SXSW.- Actress
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Olivia Magnani was born in 1975 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. She is an actress, known for The Consequences of Love (2004), All the Money in the World (2017) and Maria Venera (2007).- Actor
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Romolo Valli was born on 7 February 1925 in Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was an actor, known for The Leopard (1963), Duck, You Sucker! (1971) and The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970). He died on 1 February 1980 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Actor
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Monty Banks was a short, stocky but somehow debonair Italian-born comic actor, later also writer and director. In the US from 1914, he first appeared on stage in musical comedy and cabaret. By 1917 he was working as a dancer in New York's Dominguez Cafe. After this he turned to films, acting and doing stunt work at Keystone, Universal and for Al Christie. Changing his name from Mario Bianchi to Monty Banks may have been prompted by Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle as a passing reference to his playing '"montebanks". By 1919 Banks had moved to Vitagraph to play a villain in The Grocery Clerk (1919), foil to star comic Larry Semon.
Banks first came to the fore in his own right as star of the "Welcome Comedies" made by Warner Brothers. He spent the early 1920s at Fox and Grand Asher, graduating to writing and directing two-reel comedies with himself as the star. Most noteworthy entries in regard to inventive sight gags and Mack Sennett--style madcap plots are Pay or Move (1924) and The Golf Bug (1924). The success of this series prompted Banks to create an independent production company, the Monty Banks Pictures Corporation, in conjunction with writer/director Howard Estabrook. He made several feature-length films for Pathe, including Play Safe (1927)) (generally considered his best work), which featured a climactic runaway train sequence. This style of fast-action slapstick made it inevitable that Banks suffered more than his fair share of injuries, especially since he continued to do many of his own stunts.
From the late 1920s Banks worked in England and made several appearances in sound films. However, his accent proved to be something of an obstacle. He therefore decided, after 1930, to concentrate on directing and producing. He helmed four features starring the popular entertainer Gracie Fields, who became his second wife in 1940. In 1935 he directed a well-received George Formby comedy, No Limit (1935), about the TT motorcycle races on the Isle of Man, which were shot on location there.
With the outbreak of World War II Banks--being an Italian citizen--would have faced internment in England as an enemy alien. He therefore deemed it necessary to flee to Canada, and from there to the neutral United States. He eventually obtained American citizenship, for which he had applied years earlier, but had forgotten to submit the necessary paperwork. Back in Hollywood he ended up at 20th Century-Fox, directing Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy in Great Guns (1941), arguably one of their lesser efforts.
Banks died of a heart attack during a trip through Italy in January 1950, aged just 52. Sadly, the majority of his one- and two-reelers are now considered lost films. As a result, his status as a leading comic of the silent screen may have somewhat diminished--except, perhaps, in his home town of Cesena, where a foundation was established in his honor (the "Aula Didattica Monty Banks"), offering students "practical courses on experimental aspects of video production".- Ignazio Boschetto was born on 4 October 1994 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He is an actor, known for Entourage (2004), Il Volo: L'amore si muove (2015) and Il Volo: Grande amore (2015).
- Leonardo Maltese was born in 1997 in Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He is an actor, known for Lord of the Ants (2022), Kidnapped: The Abduction of Edgardo Mortara (2023) and The Blunder.
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Fabio De Luigi is one of the most successful comic actors of the last years in Italy. His success began when he entered in the cast of the comic show of the Gialappa's Band. Then, he gave life to some funny and now famous characters such as the proud actor Orso Maria Wilson, the little detestable Maiuscolo but most of all, the singer Olmo. "Olmo & friends" the first CD published by the comic has been one of the best sellers of this season.- Massimo Madrigali was born on 11 April 1969 in Bologna, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was an actor, known for L'appassionata (1989). He died on 19 May 2024 in Fonzaso, Veneto, Italy.
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Giuseppe Verdi was born Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi on October 10, 1813, in Le Roncole di Busseto, Parma, Italy. His parents were landowners and innkeepers. Young Verdi received his first organ lessons at the age of 7. He studied composition privately with Ferdinando Provesi in Busseto. At age 20 he moved to Milan to continue his studies, but the Conservatory of Music rejected him. Verdi took private lessons and associated with Milan's cultural milieu in his pursuit of a musical career. He was patronized by Antonio Barezzi, a merchant, whose daughter, Margherita, was Verdi's student and later became his wife.
His first opera, Oberto (1839), was a successful production by Milan's Theatro La Scala. While Verdi continued working on his second opera, his wife and two children died. The second opera failed, and he suffered a depression and vowed to quit musical career. La Scala impresario, Merelli, persuaded him to write a third opera. Nabucco (1842) made Verdi famous. He followed the Bel Canto style of Gaetano Donizetti and Vincenzo Bellini. Verdi's best operas were based on plays by Victor Hugo, such as 'Ernani' (1844) and 'Rigoletto' (1851). In 1853 Verdi 's masterpiece 'La Traviata' was produced in Venice. It was based on 'The Lady of the Camelias', a play by Alexandre Dumas, fils. At that time Verdi became familiar with the music of Russian composer Mikhail Glinka who was popularized in Europe by Franz Liszt. The music of Mikhail Glinka had certain influence on Verdi's later operas.
In 1861 Verdi wrote 'La forza del destino' commissioned by the Imperial Theatre in St. Petersburg, Russia, upon the recommendations by Aleksandr Borodin. It was performed with great success in 1862, and became part of a standard operatic repertoire ever since. His grand-opera 'Aida' (1871) was premiered in Cairo as part of the celebrations of the opening of the Suez Canal, and became an instant success. In his later operas Verdi turned from the style of Bel Canto to more expressive music and orchestration, like in 'Otello' (1887), based on the eponymous play by Shakespeare. Verdi's last and musically most brilliant, rich and expressive opera, 'Falstaff' (1893), was based on the Shakespeare's play "The Merry Wives of Windsor" in the adaptation of Victor Hugo.
Verdi's musical success coincided with the political events of Italian unification during the Austrian occupation. The 'Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves' from his opera 'Nabucco' (1842), became a popular song among supporters of Italian unification. Many of his opera performances were used by the supporters of Victor Emmanuel to shout "Viva Verdi" as a code name for a secret unification message. The name Verdi was used as acronym for "Vittorio Emanuele Re D'Italia" - Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy. Such a code enabled clandestine partisans of Victor Emmanuel, then the King of Sardinia, to gain more supporters in Milan which eventually led to the unification of Italy. Verdi was aware that his popular operas and his name was used as a political tool. Austrian censorship was powerless.
In 1861 Victor Emmanuel became the King of Italy in Turin. From 1861-1865 Giuseppe Verdi was elected representative of Busseto in the newly formed Italian parliament. After Garibaldi's military campaign the capital was moved to Florence, then to Rome, and Verdi returned from politics to music. He lived in Milan during the last years of his life. He was revered and honoured all over the world, and was much visited by his admirers. He died on January 27, 1901, in Milan, and was laid to rest at the Casa di Riposo, a retirement home for elderly musicians that was established by Verdi himself.
Verdi's music was used in hundreds of film scores. His operas has been the staples of operatic repertoire. His canzonas "La donna è mobile" from opera 'Rigoletto' (1851) and "Libiamo ne'lieti calici" (Drinking song) from 'La Traviata' (1853) has been popular concert numbers in performances by the three tenors: Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras.