The Italian Language

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Cinema

As far as the cinema goes, some famous directors come from Italy, among them Federico Fellini (1920-1993), whose films include La Dolce Vita, Otto e Mezzo, La Strada and Roma; Pier Paolo Pasolini (1922-1975), also a writer and poet, who filmed The Gospel According to Matthew, The Decameron and The Canterbury Tales and Michelangelo Antonioni (1912), who directed Blow-up and Zabriskie Point. The latter is also active outside Italy, having worked with Wim Wenders and several foreign actresses and actors, such as Vanessa Redgrave and Jack Nicholson. Other directors I could cite are Luchino Visconti (1906-1976), director of The Leopard and Death in Venice and Bernardo Bertolucci (1941), author of The Last Tango in Paris and The Last Emperor. Vittorio de Sica (1901-1974), whose best-known films are Miracolo a Milano and Ladri di biciclette was also an actor. Other actors of this generation are Marcello Mastroiani (1924-1996) Sofia Loren (Sofia Villani Scicolone) (1934), Gina Lollobrigida (1927), Vittorio Gassmman (1922-2000), and Ugo Tognazzi (1922-1990).
		Vittorio de Sica

Lina Wertmüller (Arcangela Felice Assunta Wertmüller von Elgg Spanol von Braueich) (1926) was born in Rome, the daughter of an aristocratic Swiss family. As a film director she is known for the length of the titles of her films, one of them actually being quoted as the longest on record (Un fatto di sangue nel comune di Sculiana fra due uomini per causa di una vedova. Si sospettano moventi politici. Amore-Morte-Shimmy. Lugano belle. Tarantelle. Tarallucci e vino). She collaborated with Fellini in 8 1/2 and was the first woman to be nominated for the Oscar of best director for Paqualino Sette Bellezze, in 1975, a film which was internationally acclaimed.

Agostino (Dino) de Laurentiis (1919) at first wanted to be an actor. A look in the mirror convinced him he would be better behind the camera, so he decided he to become a producer. For a time he was active in Italy, working for joint Italian-American co-productions. When the Italian law changed and these co-productions were no longer financed by the state, he settled in the US. He was the producer of some Fellini films, like La Strada, and a number of US films, such as King Kong, Dune and Ragtime.

The Swedish Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg (1931) is best known for her role in Fellini's La Dolce vita, where she acted across Marcello Mastroiani. Two famous actors of Spaghetti Western are Bud Spenser (born Carlo Pedersoli in Naples) (1929) and Terence Hill (Born as Mario Girotti in Venice) (1939). Bud Spencer started his career as a swimmer and water-polo player. He began his cinema career acting in the Mervy LeRoy's classic Quo Vadis? Terence Hill moved to Germany as a child. He acted in Visconti's Leopard, returning afterwards to Germany, where he acted in several Sauerkraut Westerns. After he met Bud Spenser they acted together in a series of Spaghetti Westerns, among which They Call Me Trinity and My Name is Still Trininty. In My Name is Nobody they acted across Henry Fonda. The Fonda family, incidentally, can trace their origins to Genoa, Italy.
		Anita Ekberg in the Famous scene in the Fontana dei Trevi, from Fellini's La Dolce Vita

Among younger actors, besides Roberto Begnini, I could cite, Monica Bellucci (1969), Massimo Troisi (1953-1994), Francesca Neri (1964) and Maria Grazia Cucinotta (1969). Troisi became famous with the 1994 film Il Postino, dying soon a few hours after the filming was finished.

		Roberto Rossellini (1906-1977) is perhaps best remembered abroad for the affair he had with Ingrid Bergman (1915-1982), the Swedish actress made famous for her role in Casablanca. She wrote to him once, suggesting they might work together. Eventually both left their partners and eloped, which was at the time a scandal. She left the US, her adoptive home and married Rossellini and settled in Italy till 1957, the year when they divorced. She acted in Rossellini's Stromboli. Rossellini, a major exponent of Neorealism, is also the director of Roma, Città Aperta. They are the parents of the actress Isabella Rossellini (1952).
Ingrid Bergman in Stromboli

Claudia Cardinale, Claude Joséphine Rose Cardin (1939) was born in Tunisia to Italian Parents. She has worked extensively with Italian directors like Federico Fellini, Lucchino Visconti and Sergio Leone. She has also acted in many other European and American productions, such as Blake Edwards' Pink Panther. She is married to the producer Franco Cristaldi.

Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Piero Filiberto Guglielmi, known as Rodolfo Valentino (1895-1926), one of the famous stars of silent films, was born in Castellaneta, Italy, to a middle-class family in the same year that the cinema was invented. His mother was French, while his father was Italian. He emigrated to the US following the advice of a friend. At first things did not go too well for him and he did a series of odd jobs, before becoming a dancer. Again on the advice of a friend, he tried the cinema, which, at the time was still silent. He soon became a success, principally among the feminine part of the audience. He married several times and died in his prime, a fact which added to his fame. His best-known role was in The Sheik. His two funeral ceremonies, one on the West Coast, the other on the East, were attended by thousands.
		Rodolfo Valentino and his second wife, Natasha Rambova, Photograph by James Abbe

The English actor Sir Peter Ustinov (1921-2004) is descended from Catterino Cavos (see Music, Painting and Architecture). His grandfather was Leon Benois, who was the son of Catterino's daughter, Camilla.

Frank Capra (Francesco Rosario Capra) (1897-1991), the director of It happened one night, You Can't take it with you and It's a Wonderful Life, was born in Sicily. The whole family emigrated to the US and he became an American citizen in 1920. His comedies are noted for their positive outlook and their faith in mankind. You Can't take it With you and It happened one night both won the Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture.

In The United states there are several actors and directors of Italian orini, among whom the directors Francis Ford Coppola (1939), Brian de Palma (1940) and Martin Scorsese (1942) and the actors Al Pacino (1940), Robert de Niro (1943), Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone (1946) and Leonardo di Caprio (1974). Al Pacino, who acted the part of Michael Corleone in The Godfather, is descended from a native from Corleone, in Sicily. Robert de Niro, whose grandfather comes from Molise, has close ties with Italy, being an Italian citizen.