MASELLI, FRANCESCO

(1930-)

Director and screenwriter. During a career that has spanned half a century, Maselli has remained one of the most politically vocal and socially committed of all Italian directors. After taking part in theResistancemovement during World War II, Maselli enrolled at theCentro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, graduating in 1949. At the same time he served as assistant on some ofMichelangelo Antonioni's early documentaries and made a number of his own, which were shown to strong acclaim at Venice.He subsequently worked as codirector withCesare ZavattinionLa storia di Caterina(Caterina's Story),one of the six episodes of the compilation filmAmore in Citta(Love in the City, 1953). He would collaborate again with Zavattini in the early 1960s, when he would contribute the episodeLe adolescenti e I'amore(The Adolescents and Love) to Zavattini'sLe italiane e l'amore(Latin Lovers, 1961).

His first feature,Gli sbandati(Abandoned, 1955), examined the issue of political responsibility among the younger generation at the time of the events of 1943. After a number of minor works, includingBambini al cinema(Children at the Cinema, 1956), a delightful short film about a small cinema for children in Rome's Villa Borghese, he madeI delfini(The Dauphins, 1960), a scathing portrait of the bored and wealthy younger generation in a provincial city at the beginning of Italy's economic boom. This was followed by a finely crafted adaptation of Alberto Moravia's novelGli Indifferenti(A Time of Indifference, 1964), beautifully photographed in black and white by master cinematographerGianni Di Venanzo. Maselli played an active part in the protests of 1968 including the occupation and boycott of theVenice Festivalthat year, following which he madeLettera aperta a un giornale della sera(Open Letter to an Evening Daily, 1970), a highly polemic and provocative film shot on 16 mm film in cinema verite style. This was followed byIl sospetto(The Suspect, 1975), a taut and highly charged political thriller set in the mid-1930s, written with Marxist screenwriterFranco Solinasand starringGian Maria Volontein what was perhaps one of his finest performances. For the next decade Maselli largely produced films made for television, among themAvventura di un fotografo(The Adventure of a Photographer, 1984), which he adapted from a short story by Italo Calvino. He returned to the big screen withStoria d'amore(Love Story, 1986), a penetrating psychological study of female breakdown that earned the film the Grand Jury Prize at Venice as well as the Volpi Cup for lead actress, Valeria Golino. As an active member of the Communist Refoundation Party and president of ANAC, Maselli organized a number of directors to film the antiglobalization demonstration at the G8 meeting in Rome in 2002. His most recent works have been documentaries:Lettere dalla Palestina(Letters from Palestine, 2002) andFirenze, nostro domaini(Florence, Our Tomorrow, 2003).