Biography of Luigi Comencini
The art of forming the public
8 June 1916 6April 2007
The great Italian Director Luigi Comencini was born in Salò, Brescia, the day June 8, 1916. In addition to his extensive and qualitative filmmaking Comencini is remembered for being one of the initiators, together with Alberto Lattuada and Mario Ferrari, the Cineteca Italiana, the first film archive in Italy. Set aside with a degree in architecture, he devoted himself to journalistic world war Luigi Comencini and became film critic; He works for the "forward!", then switched to the weekly magazine "time". At the age of thirty, in 1946, he made his directorial debut with the documentary "children in cities"; two years after signature, with "a big no-no steal", his first feature film.
The beginning of the career of Comencini is characterized by the desire to make films that talk about guys: just from "forbidden to steal" (1948, with Adolfo Celi), on the difficult lives of young Neapolitans, until "La finestra sul Luna Park (1956) in which it is said the attempt of an emigrant father to recover the relationship with her son, stayed away for a long time. After "the Emperor of Capri" (1949, with Totò), the big success came with the combination of "bread, love and dreams" (1953) and "Pane, amore e gelosia (1954), both with Vittorio De Sica and Gina Lollobrigida; These were the years when the cinema is dedicated to that pink neorealism that will devote considerable fortune in Italy. And Comencini enters with these jobs among the most significant examples and appreciated. In the early ' 60 Comencini is among the protagonists in the genesis of the commedia all'italiana: his most important work of the period is perhaps "Tutti a casa" (1960, with Alberto Sordi and Eduardo De Filippo), pungent re-enactment of the Italians ' behavior shortly after the Armistice of September 8, 1943.
Other works are "A cavallo della tigre (1961, with Nino Manfredi and Gian Maria Volontè), prison film narrative impact," the Commissioner "(1962, with Alberto Sordi), a noir with pink elements forerunner than the times and" La ragazza di Bube "(1963, with Claudia Cardinale). He has also a chapter, the fifth, the saga of Don Camillo: "Don Camillo" (1965, with Fernandel and Gino Cervi). Then back on the subject of boys; represent the world of children seems to be his goal more dear: thus "Misunderstood: life with her son" (1964), a novel by Florence Montgomery; in 1971 runs for Italian television "the adventures of Pinocchio" with a great Nino Manfredi as Geppetto, Franco Franchi and Ciccio Ingrassia, who play the Fox and the cat, and Gina Lollobrigida as the blue fairy. Then in 1984, always for television, he made "Heart" (with Johnny Dorelli, Giuliana De Sio and Eduardo De Filippo).
The latter works, taken respectively by the novels of Carlo Collodi and Edmondo De Amicis, they will remain in the memory of generations of viewers. The gorgeous "turn around, Eugenio" (1980), the film explores the relationship between different generations, maintaining a certain due rigour, but without missing the serene irony he is capable of. The years ' 70 are also to remember jobs such as "Lo scopone scientifico" (1972, with Bette Davis, Silvana Mangano and Alberto Sordi), "La donna della domenica" (1975, with Jacqueline Bisset and Marcello Mastroianni), a satirical yellow, "the cat" (1977), "the traffic jam, una storia impossibile (1978)," seeking Jesus "(1981). The later films--"the story" (1986, based on the novel by Elsa Morante), "La Boheme" (1987), "Un ragazzo di Calabria (1987)," Merry Christmas, buon anno (1989, with Virna Lisi), "Marcellino pane e vino" (1991, with Ida Di Benedetto)-are perhaps not too convincing; over time and due to health problems, Luigi Comencini abandons the task. Then the daughters, Francesca and Cristina, undertake the profession of Director, and somehow the father's artistic continuity is guaranteed. Francesca Comencini has got to declare: "it's as if me and my sister Cristina we divided his legacy in terms of themes and languages. He loved very fragile characters, characters crushed by society, weaker ones like children, for that matter. And followed them and followed them with great emotion and participation because it was always on the side of antihero.". In the words of Frances you can find a good summary of the social significance of the work of the father: "what I did always admire my father's work was its clarity and attention to the public. His commitment to the popularization and education. For this he never snubbed the popular themes let alone television, as did many authors. And for this I think he had the great merit, along with others, have formed not only viewers but also of citizens". Luigi Comencini died in Rome on April 6, 2007.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.