NICHETTI, MAURIZIO

(1948-)

Actor, director, animator. An architecture graduate with a background in mime, Nichetti joined theBruno BozzettoFilm company in the early 1970s, working as cartoonist and animator and appearing as the harried animator in the charming live action-animated feature,Allegro non troppo(1977). Having founded Quellidigrok, an independent mime school, in 1974, he left the Bozzetto company in 1978 in order to make his first independent feature film,Rataplan(1979), an almost silent comedy that received high praise at theVenice Festivaland was hugely successful at the box office.This was followed byHo fatto splash(IMade a Splash, 1980), an amusing variation of the Rip Van Winkle theme in which a boy, played by Nichetti himself, wakes up after a 20-year sleep and finds himself needing to adapt to contemporary society. Two years later,Domani si balla(Tomorrow We Dance, 1982), again starring Nichetti himself, was part tribute to Melies and part satire on the television industry, and moreover showcasedMariangela Melato's considerable talents as a dancer.

After a variety of other shorts and extensive television work, Nichetti founded his own film production company, Bambu, to makeLadri di saponette(Icicle Thieves, 1989), a playful homage toVittorio De Sica's neorealist classicLadri di biciclette(Bicycle Thieves, 1948), but done as another satire on television and the encroachment of advertising. The film attracted international acclaim with Nichetti winning his secondNastro d'argentofor Best Original Story. There followed a host of internationally acclaimed films that mixed animation and live actors:Volere Volare(To Want to Fly, 1991), the amusing trials of a man turning into a cartoon character, which was awarded aDavid di Donatellofor its screenplay;Stefano Quantestorie(1993), in which a young man of the 1960s lives out a number of possible alternative lives; andLuna e I'altra(Luna and the Other, 1996), where shadows live out independent existences. More recently, as well as continuing to make screwball comedies such asHonolulu Baby(2001), he has also widened his artistic activities to include directing opera and lyric theater, beginning with a much-praised production of Gioacchino Rossini'sBarber of Sevilleat Trento in 1999.