30 Italian Directors
by kishiro6 | created - 26 Apr 2020 | updated - 29 Apr 2020 | PublicNoteworthy italian directors from the early days up to and into the italian neorealism wave and somewhere beyond. All born between 1895 and 1920
1. Vittorio De Sica
Director | Ladri di biciclette
Vittorio De Sica grew up in Naples, and started out as an office clerk in order to raise money to support his poor family. He was increasingly drawn towards acting, and made his screen debut while still in his teens, joining a stage company in 1923. By the late 1920s he was a successful matinee ...
2. Nunzio Malasomma
Writer | L'uomo dall'artiglio
Nunzio Malasomma was born on February 4, 1894 in Caserta, Campania, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for L'uomo dall'artiglio (1931), Acque di primavera (1942) and Cose dell'altro mondo (1939). He died on January 12, 1974 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
3. Mario Camerini
Director | Il signor Max
Mario Camerini was born on February 6, 1895 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Il signor Max (1937), I'll Give a Million (1935) and I grandi magazzini (1939). He was married to Assia Noris. He died on February 4, 1981 in Gardone Riviera, Lombardy, Italy.
4. Mario Mattoli
Director | Abbandono
Mario Mattoli was born on November 30, 1898 in Tolentino, Marche, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Abbandono (1940), La damigella di Bard (1936) and Schoolgirl Diary (1941). He was married to Mity Mignone. He died on February 26, 1980 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
5. Alessandro Blasetti
Director | Prima comunione
Alessandro Blasetti was born on July 3, 1900 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for First Communion (1950), La corona di ferro (1941) and Me, Me, Me... and the Others (1966). He was married to Maria Laura Quagliotti. He died on February 1, 1987 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
6. Goffredo Alessandrini
Director | Seconda B
Goffredo Alessandrini was born on September 9, 1904 in Cairo, Egypt. He was a director and writer, known for Seconda B (1934), Luciano Serra, pilota (1938) and We the Living (1942). He was married to Anna Magnani. He died on May 16, 1978 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
7. Roberto Rossellini
Writer | Roma città aperta
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 ...
8. Luchino Visconti
Writer | Il gattopardo
Born in his ancestral palazzo, situated in the same Milanese square as both the opera house La Scala and the Milan Cathedral, Luchino Visconti (1906 - 1976) was raised under the auspices of aristocratic privilege, theater and Catholicism. This triangulation of monuments would create an equally ...
9. Roberto Bianchi Montero
Director | Tharus figlio di Attila
Roberto Bianchi Montero was born on December 7, 1907 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Tharus figlio di Attila (1962), Savana: Violenza carnale (1979) and 36 ore all'inferno (1969). He died in 1986.
10. Giorgio Ferroni
Director | Il Leone di Tebe
Giorgio Ferroni was born on April 12, 1908 in Perugia, Perugia, Umbria, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for The Lion of Thebes (1964), Pompei (1936) and Armonie pucciniane (1938). He was married to Nada Fiorelli. He died on August 17, 1981.
11. Riccardo Freda
Writer | Caccia all'uomo
Riccardo Freda was born in Alexandria, Egypt, of Italian parents. Educated in Milan, he became a sculptor, then a newspaper art critic. He began a career in film in 1937 as a screenwriter and production supervisor. He moved into directing in 1942, beginning a career that lasted some 40 years. ...
12. Piero Pierotti
Writer | Golia e il cavaliere mascherato
Piero Pierotti was born on January 1, 1912 in Pisa, Tuscany, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Hercules and the Masked Rider (1963), The Pirate and the Slave Girl (1959) and Marco Polo (1962). He died on May 4, 1970 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
13. Michelangelo Antonioni
Writer | Blow-Up
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 ...
14. Leopoldo Savona
Director | La guerra continua
Leopoldo Savona was born on July 13, 1913 in Lenola, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and assistant director, known for Warriors Five (1962), Apocalypse Joe (1970) and Arms of the Avenger (1963). He died on October 19, 2000 in Jesi, Marche, Italy.
15. Vittorio Cottafavi
Director | Traviata '53
The son of an army officer and landowner, Cottafavi (christened Benedetto Vittorio Emmanuele Secondo) was already endowed with a university education in law, philosophy and literature by the time he graduated from the famous Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome in 1938.
He began his ...
16. Marino Girolami
Director | Le tardone
Marino Girolami was born on February 1, 1914 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Le tardone (1964), Walter e i suoi cugini (1961) and Caccia al marito (1960). He died on February 20, 1994 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
17. Mario Bava
Cinematographer | Ecologia del delitto
Italian director Mario Bava was born on July 31, 1914 in the coastal northern Italian town of Sanremo. His father, Eugenio Bava (1886-1966), was a cinematographer in the early days of the Italian film industry. Bava was trained as a painter, and when he eventually followed his father into film ...
18. Pietro Germi
Writer | Il ferroviere
Pietro Germi was born on September 14, 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 December 5, 1974 in Rome, ...
19. Alberto Lattuada
Writer | Guendalina
Alberto Lattuada was born on November 13, 1914 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Guendalina (1957), Flesh Will Surrender (1947) and Bambina (1974). He was married to Carla Del Poggio. He died on July 3, 2005 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
20. Mario Monicelli
Writer | I compagni
Mario Monicelli was born on May 16, 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 November 29, 2010 in Rome, Lazio,...
21. Dino Risi
Director | Il sorpasso
Dino Risi became a movie director by chance. In 1940 he met Alberto Lattuada at a friend's boutique. Lattuada told him they needed an assistant director for the movie Piccolo mondo antico (1941). Risi accepted just for fun, not for work. Later, he became a psychiatrist and wrote some articles for a...
22. Giuseppe De Santis
Writer | Caccia tragica
Giuseppe De Santis was born on February 11, 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 May 16, 1997 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
23. Massimo Dallamano
Cinematographer | Per un pugno di dollari
Massimo Dallamano was born on April 17, 1917 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a cinematographer and writer, known for A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Tierra mágica (1959) and What Have You Done to Solange? (1972). He died on November 14, 1976 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
24. Giulio Petroni
Director | La cento chilometri
Giulio Petroni was born on September 21, 1917 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for La cento chilometri (1959), Do Not Commit Adultery (1972) and Tepepa (1969). He died on January 31, 2010 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
25. Giovanni Grimaldi
Writer | Brutti di notte
Giovanni Grimaldi was born on November 14, 1917 in Catania, Sicily, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Brutti di notte (1968), I 2 deputati (1968) and Le inibizioni del dottor Gaudenzi, vedovo col complesso della buonanima (1971). He died on February 25, 2001 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
26. Antonio Pietrangeli
Writer | Io la conoscevo bene
Antonio Pietrangeli was born on January 19, 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 July 12, 1968 in Gaeta, Lazio, Italy.
27. Franco Rossi
Director | Amici per la pelle
Franco Rossi was born on April 28, 1919 in Florence, Tuscany, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for The Woman in the Painting (1955), Nude Odyssey (1961) and Smog (1962). He died on June 5, 2000 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
28. Gualtiero Jacopetti
Writer | Mondo cane
Gualtiero Jacopetti was born on September 4, 1919 in Barga, Tuscany, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for A Dog's Life (1962), Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971) and Mondo candido (1975). He was married to Jolanda Kaldaras. He died on August 17, 2011 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
29. Gillo Pontecorvo
Director | La battaglia di Algeri
Gillo Pontecorvo was an Italian filmmaker. He is best known for his 1966 masterpiece, The Battle of Algiers, widely viewed as one of the finest films of its genre: realistic though fictionalized documentary. Its portrayal of the Algerian resistance during the Algerian War uses the neorealist style ...
30. Federico Fellini
Writer | Le notti di Cabiria
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 ...
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