DE CONCINI, ENNIO

(1923-)

Screenwriter. One of the most prolific and versatile of Italian screenwriters, De Concini began his career in films as assistant director and cowriter ofVittorio De Sica'sSciuscia(Shoe-Shine, 1946). He subsequently wrote or cowrote the screenplays of approximately 150 films, moving easily between the commercialism of the popular genres and the artistic demands of auteurist cinema. He was particularly prolific in thepeplum, helping to write many of the classics of the genre, includingPietro Francisci'sLe fatiche di Ercole(Hercules, 1957) andErcole e la regina di Lidia(Hercules Unchained, 1958) andRiccardo Freda'sMaciste all'inferno(Maciste in Hell, 1962).He also helped to launch thehorrorgenre by writingMario Bava's seminalLa maschera del demonio(Black Sunday, 1960) and the film that is regarded as marking the birth of thegiallo,La ragazza che sapeva troppo(The Girl Who Knew Too Much, 1962). At the same time he also worked with many of the up-and-coming auteurs, collaborating withMichelangelo AntonionionIl grido(The Cry, 1957), withGillo PontecorvoonLa grande strada azzurra(The Wide Blue Road, 1957), and withPietro GermionUn maledetto imbroglio(The Facts of Murder, 1959), for which he shared aNastro d'argento. He scored his greatest triumph, however, with the story and screenplay of Germi'sDivorzio all'italiana(Divorce Italian Style, 1961), for which he received both a Silver Ribbon and an Academy Award.

He continued to turn out scripts in subsequent years, working withLuciano SalceonLa pecora nera(The Black Sheep, 1968) andColpo di stato(Coup d'Etat, 1968) andDino RisionOperazione San Gennaro(The Treasure of San Gennaro, 1966). He also coscripted Edward Dmytryk'sBluebeard(1972), which starred Richard Burton and Raquel Welch. From the mid-1980s he began to work extensively for Italian television, writing, among other things, three of the enormously popularPiovra(Octopus) series on the Mafia. Concini also directed two films himself,Daniele e Maria(Daniele and Maria, 1972), a film that attempted to highlight the plight of the mentally handicapped, andHitler, gli ultimi dieci giorni(Hitler:The Last Ten Days, 1973), which starred Alec Guiness as a close approximation of the fuhrer.