Renato Castellani (4 September 1913 – 28 December 1985) was an Italian film director and screenwriter.
Early life Son of a representative of Kodak, he was born in Varigotti, at the time a hamlet of Final Pia, which became Finale Ligure (Savona) in 1927, where his mother had returned from Argentina to give birth to his son. He spent his childhood in Argentina, in the city of Rosario. After 12 years, he returned to Liguria and resumed his studies in Genoa. He moved to Milan, where he graduated from the Polytechnic University in architecture. In Milan he met Livio Castiglioni and together they aired for GUF (Fascist University Group) L'ora radiofonica and La fontana malata by Aldo Palazzeschi, experimenting with new techniques for sound editing on radio.
Career He began collaborating in 1936 as a military consultant for The Great Appeal, a film by Mario Camerini. He worked as a film critic and worked - as a screenwriter or assistant director - with important names of the Italian cinema of the time, such as Augusto Genina, with whom he signed the script for Castles in the air (1939), by Mario Soldati, of which he was assistant director on the set of Malombra (1942). He then worked with the director Alessandro Blasetti, signing the screenplays of his movies An Adventure of Salvator Rosa (1939), The Iron Crown (1941), Four Steps in the Clouds (1942) and with the director Camillo Mastrocinque, signing the screenplay of The Cuckoo Clock (1938).
His first work as a director was A Pistol Shot (1942), based on a story by Aleksandr Puskin, in which Alberto Moravia also took part in the screenplay, with Fosco Giachetti and Assia Noris. This movie, as well as the subsequent Zazà (1942), fit into the caligraphism genre.
With Under the Sun of Rome (1948), It's Forever Springtime (1950), both shot outdoors with non-professional actors, and especially Two Cents Worth of Hope (1952), Castellani gave rise to a new genre, defined as "pink neorealism", considered by critics at the time as the downward trend of neorealism, but destined to a vast audience success.
With Two Cents Worth of Hope, he won the ex aequo Grand Prix at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival. With Romeo and Juliet (1954), he won the Golden Lion at the 1954 Venice Film Festival.
After some other significant films such as Dreams in a Drawer (1957) and The Brigand (1961), Castellani devoted himself mainly to biopics in episodes shot for television, widely followed, such as The Life of Leonardo da Vinci (1971) and The Life of Verdi (1982).
Filmography
Film YearTitleDirectorWriter1938The Cuckoo ClockNoYes1938Unknown of Monte CarloNoYes1939Two Million for a SmileNoYes1939HeartbeatNoYes1939Department StoreNoYes1939The DocumentNoYes1939Castles in the AirNoYes1939The Knight of San MarcoNoYes1940One Hundred Thousand DollarsNoYes1940A Romantic AdventureNoYes1940An Adventure of Salvator RosaNoYes1941The Jester's SupperNoYes1941The Iron CrownNoYes1942MalombraNoYes1942A Pistol ShotYesYes1942ZazàYesYes1943The Woman of the MountainYesYes1943In High PlacesNoYes1946MalìaNoYes1946Professor, My SonYesYes1948Under the Sun of RomeYesYes1948FabiolaNoYes1950It's Forever SpringtimeYesYes1950RomanticismoNoYes1952Two Cents Worth of HopeYesYes1954Romeo and JulietYesYes1957Dreams in a DrawerYesYes1959...And the Wild Wild WomenYesYes1961The BrigandYesYes1963Mad SeaYesYes1964Marriage Italian StyleNoYes1964CountersexYesYes1964Three Nights of LoveYesYes1967Ghosts - Italian StyleYesYes1969The ArchangelNoYes1969Brief SeasonYesYes
Television
The Life of Leonardo da Vinci (Rai, 1971) Il furto della Gioconda (Rai, 1978) The Life of Verdi (Rai, 1982)
Theater
Blithe Spirit, by Noël Coward, Rome, Teatro delle Arti, December 1945
See also Cinema of Italy Neorealism Caligraphism Luciano Emmer Steno
References
Bibliography
Further reading
Externals links