SQUITIERI, PASQUALE

(1938-)

Screenwriter and director. After graduating in law in his native Naples, Squitieri moved to Rome, where he began acting in the theater. Attracted by the lure of cinema, he was soon working as assistant director toFrancesco Rosi. He made his directorial debut withIo e Dio(God and I, 1969), a film about a priest in southern Italy, encouraged and produced for him byVittorio De Sica. There followed two forays into theWesternall'italianaunder the pseudonym William Redford,Django sfida Sartana(Django Defies Sartana, 1970) andLa vendetta e unpiatto che si serve freddo(Vengeance Is a Dish Served Cold, 1971), beforeCamorra(Gang War in Naples, 1972), the first of a number of films exploring the issue of organized crime in southern Italy, which included what many still regard as Squitieri's best film,Ilprefetto di ferro(The Iron Prefect, 1977).A heroic portrait of Cesare Mori, the police prefect from northern Italy who was sent to Sicily in 1925 in order to subdue the Mafia,Il prefettowas awarded theDavid di Donatellofor Best Film and its film score byEnnio Morriconewas nominated for an Academy Award. Following another film on the Mafia,Corleone(Father of the Godfathers, 1978), Squitieri changed direction to makeClaretta(Claretta Petacci, 1984), a film about Mussolini's mistress, Clara Petacci, which starred the actress with whom he most often worked and had married,Claudia Cardinale. The film was critically acclaimed, earning Cardinale aNastro d'argentofor her powerful interpretation of the role, but Squitieri was also fiercely attacked for what appeared to many to be an indulgence in Fascist sympathies.

Squitieri subsequently worked for a period in television before returning to the big screen with several strongly socially committed films,Gli invisibili(The Invisible Ones, 1988), which tackled the theme of political terrorism, andAtto di dolore(Act of Sorrow, 1990), the moving story of a mother struggling to save her son from a heroin addiction. He also returned to the theme of criminality in southern Italy, and to the style of his earlier spaghetti Westerns, inLi chiamarono briganti(Brigands, 1999). His most recent film,L'avvocato de Gregorio(Counselor de Gregorio, 2003), is about an elderly lawyer in straitened circumstances who manages to reassert his sense of dignity by taking a stance for justice.