Renato Castellani

Sceneggiatore, Regista, Attore

4 settembre 1913 — 28 dicembre 1985 (72 anni)
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).

Famoso per

  • Matrimonio all'italiana
    Matrimonio all'italiana1964
  • Due soldi di speranza
    Due soldi di speranza1952
  • Giulietta e Romeo
    Giulietta e Romeo1954
  • Sotto il sole di Roma
    Sotto il sole di Roma1948
  • Nella città l'inferno
    Nella città l'inferno1959
  • Questi fantasmi
    Questi fantasmi1967
  • La vita di Leonardo Da Vinci
    La vita di Leonardo Da Vinci5 episodi
  • L'isola del tesoro
    L'isola del tesoro5 episodi
  • Verdi
    Verdi9 episodi
  • I grandi magazzini
    I grandi magazzini1939
  • La corona di ferro
    La corona di ferro1941
  • Mare matto
    Mare matto1963
  • Mio figlio professore
    Mio figlio professore1946
  • È primavera...
    È primavera...1950
  • Il brigante
    Il brigante1961
  • I sogni nel cassetto
    I sogni nel cassetto1957
  • Una breve stagione
    Una breve stagione1969
  • Resurrezione
    Resurrezione1958
  • Centomila dollari
    Centomila dollari1940
  • Una romantica avventura
    Una romantica avventura1940

Filmografia

1987
1982
1978
1971
1969
1969
The Archangel · as Screenplay
1967
Ghosts, Italian Style · as Screenplay
1964
Marriage Italian Style · as Screenplay
1964
1964
3 notti d'amore · as Screenplay
1961
The Brigand · as Screenplay
1958
1957
1950
1949
Fabiola · as Screenplay
1946
Professor, My Son · 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