Renato Castellani

Escritor, Director, Actor

4 de septiembre de 1913 — 28 de diciembre de 1985 (72 años)
Renato Castellani (4 September 1913 – 28 December 1985) was an Italian film director and screenwriter.

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.

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).

Conocido por

  • Matrimonio a la italiana
    Matrimonio a la italiana1964
  • Dos centavos de esperanza
    Dos centavos de esperanza1952
  • Romeo y Julieta
    Romeo y Julieta1954
  • Bajo el sol de Roma
    Bajo el sol de Roma1948
  • La guapa y su fantasma
    La guapa y su fantasma1967
  • Leonardo da Vinci
    Leonardo da Vinci5 episodes
  • La isla del tesoro en el espacio exterior
    La isla del tesoro en el espacio exterior5 episodes
  • Verdi
    Verdi9 episodes
  • Grandes almacenes
    Grandes almacenes1939
  • La corona de hierro
    La corona de hierro1941
  • Pensión a la italiana
    Pensión a la italiana1963
  • Mi hijo profesor
    Mi hijo profesor1946
  • It's Forever Springtime
    It's Forever Springtime1950
  • Venganza siciliana
    Venganza siciliana1961
  • Si tú estuvieras
    Si tú estuvieras1957
  • Un verano contigo
    Un verano contigo1969
  • Resurrección
    Resurrección1958
  • Cien mil dólares
    Cien mil dólares1940
  • Romántica aventura
    Romántica aventura1940

Filmography

1987
1982
1978
1971
1969
1969
The Archangel · as Screenplay
1967
Ghosts, Italian Style · as Screenplay
1964
Marriage Italian Style · as Screenplay
1964
1963
Mare matto · as Screenplay
1961
The Brigand · as Screenplay
1958
1957
1952
Two Cents Worth of Hope · as Screenplay
1950
1949
Fabiola · as Screenplay
1945
In High Places · as Screenplay
1944
The Mountain Woman · as Screenplay
1944
Zazà · as Screenplay
1942
Malombra · as Screenplay
1942
A Pistol Shot · as Screenplay
1942
La cena delle beffe · as Screenplay
1941
The Iron Crown · as Screenplay
1940
A Romantic Adventure · as Screenplay
1939
1939
Department Store · as Screenplay
1939