Luigi Comencini
Luigi Comencini ( born June 8, 1916 in Salò, † April 6, 2007 in Rome ) was an Italian film director.
Life and work
His childhood and youth spent Comencini in Paris. Back in Italy in the thirties, he studied architecture in Milan and was artistically close to the fascists. For the film, he came after the war, first as a critic.
Comencini worked with some of the most famous Italian actors like Gina Lollobrigida, Sophia Loren, Silvana Mangano, Giulietta Masina, Claudia Cardinale, Monica Vitti Vittorio de Sica or, Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni and Totò. He turned a few films in the tradition of neo-realism and directed the commercially successful entertainment Movies Love, bread and imagination as well as love, bread and jealousy with Vittorio de Sica and Gina Lollobrigida and the first German -language film version of Heidi.
His later films were often international co- productions with international actors, often from France ( Jacqueline Bisset, Gérard Depardieu, Annie Girardot, Maria Schneider, Michel Serrault, Jean -Louis Trintignant ), but also the German-speaking countries - Mario Adorf, Senta Berger, Elke Sommer - or Hollywood ( Lionel Stander, Bette Davis, Joseph Cotten ).
In addition to his directorial work is Comencini operated as a screenwriter and film critic. He was one of the founders of the Film Archive Cineteca Italiana.
Also Comencinis daughters are active in the film business: Paola Comencini works as a costume designer, production designer and art director, Francesca and Cristina Comencini are film directors. Cristina La bestia nel cuore Comencinis film was nominated for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.