LATTUADA, ALBERTO

(1914-2005)

Photographer, writer, director, screenwriter. A director of extraordinary versatility often characterized as merely eclectic, Lattuada was born into a cultured Milanese family and was exposed to all the arts from a very young age. His father, a composer and musician who often took his son to the opera at La Scala, also scored a number of films forAlessandro BlasettiandMario Camerini. While still in high school, Lattuada began writing and editing literary magazines and later, as an architecture student at the Politecnico of Milan, he also contributed art criticism and film reviews to several cultural journals.

He began his career in the film industry in 1933 as a set decorator and designer. In 1938, together with fellow enthusiastsLuigi Comenciniand Mario Ferrari, he founded the Cineteca (Film Library) of Milan while at the same time publishing a book of arresting photographs of the poorer quarters of the city titledOcchio quadrato(Square Eye). After working as screenwriter and assistant director toMario SoldationPiccolo mondo antico(Old-Fashioned World, 1941) andFerdinando Maria Poggioli'sSissignora(Yes, Madam, 1942), he made his directorial debut withGiacomo l'idealista(Giacomo the Idealist, 1943), a stylish adaption of Emilio De Marchi's 19th-century novel. The film's elegant formal composition and visual beauty immediately located him within the camp of the so-called calligraphers.

Displaying a versatility that would become his trademark, in the immediate postwar period he made a number of films in the neorealist mold:Il bandito(The Bandit, 1946), the story of a returned soldier that was clearly influenced by American gangster films;Il delitto di Giovanni Episcopo(Flesh Will Surrender, 1947), which earned him his firstNastro d'argento;Senza pieta(Without Pity, 1948); andIl mulino del Po(The Mill on the Po, 1949), a lyrical story of peasant struggles set in the 19th century.In 1950 he joined forces with a youngFederico Felliniin producing and directingLuci del varieta(Variety Lights, 1950), which was received with positive critical interest but proved a financial disaster for both of them. The situation for Lattuada was redeemed by the international box office success ofAnna(1951), an erotic melodrama starringSilvana Manganoas a nightclub singer who becomes a nun to atone for her previous self-ishness, and thenIl cappotto(The Overcoat, 1952), the adaptation of a tragicomic short story by Nikolai Gogol. A year later Lattuada madeGli italiani si voltano(Italians Turn to Look) forCesare Zavattini's compilation filmL'amore in citta(Love in the City, 1953). By this time he had already directedLa lupa(She Wolf, 1952), adapted from a novel by Giovanni Verga. A refined eroticism, already present in his earlier work, now came to characterize his films, and he began to become almost as famous for his discovery of a number of beautiful young actresses as for the films in which he showcased their talents.

Nevertheless, many of his films also continued to carry out a mild social critique as in the highlighting of middle-class hypocrisies inLa spiaggia(Riviera, 1954) or in the many social satires that he produced in parallel to thecommedia all'italiana, such asIl Mafioso(Mafioso, 1962) andDon Giovanni in Sicilia(Don Juan in Sicily, 1967). He also received high praise for his adaptation of Machiavelli's 16th-century comedyLa mandragola(The Mandrake, 1965), in which he employed the comic actorTototo play the key role of Fra' Timoteo. Ever eclectic, he then produced an amusing parody of the then popular spy film inMatchless(1967), which he followed with the epic antiwar filmFraulein Doktor(1969). In the 1970s he became increasingly identified with films with an explicit erotic content, such asLe faro da padre(Bambina, 1974),Oh Serafina!(1976), andLa cicala(The Cricket, 1980), the last one impounded by the censors on charges of obscenity, although it was eventually released.

In the 1980s Lattuada largely abandoned the big screen in favor of television, for which he directed, among others, a four-part minis-eries on Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo, 1985) and another miniseries,Due fratelli(Brothers, 1988). Having occasionally acted in small roles in his own films, he also made a final cameo appearance inCarlo Mazzacurati'sIl toro(The Bull, 1996).

One of Italy's most popular and critically respected directors, in 1994 Lattuada was recognized at theDavid di DonatelloAwards with theFranco Cristaldiprize for career achievement.