Raffaello Matarazzo

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Raffaello Matarazzo (born August 17, 1909 in Rome , † May 17, 1966 there ) was an Italian film director and screenwriter .

Life

At a young age, Matarazzo worked as a film critic for "Il Giornale di Sicilia" and "L'Italia Letteraria" before turning to cinema in 1931, for which he first worked as an assistant director and then as a screenwriter. After the short film “Mussolini di Sardegna” and two other scripts, he made his cinema debut in 1933 with the extremely successful and inventive Treno popolare , in which Matarazzo anticipated motifs from Italian neorealism and which was enthusiastically received by both critics and audiences. With his subsequent films, Matarazzo could not maintain this level; they are often average comedies with banal content. It was not until 1949 that he was able to land another great success with Catene (German title atonement without sin ), which he shot for “Titanus” and “Labor Film”. The criminalistic melodrama was starring Amedeo Nazzari and Yvonne Sanson and was a huge box-office success; Matarazzo followed up with similar films with similar box office results. Until his death at the age of 56, he varied this formula with decreasing success. Often reviled by critics for his artistic developments during his lifetime, he was later reassessed.

Filmography (selection)

  • 1933: Treno popolare
  • 1942: wedding anniversary (Giorno di nozze)
  • 1949: Atonement without Sin (Catene)
  • 1951: Mother's love, mother's suffering (I figli di nessuno)
  • 1951: A mother's sacrifice (Tormento)
  • 1953: Silvana (Vortice)
  • 1953: Verdi, a life in melodies (Giuseppe Verdi)
  • 1954: Tragedy of the Whore (La schiava del peccato)
  • 1954: The Ship of the Lost Women (La nave delle donne maledette)
  • 1955: women behind bars (Angelo bianco)
  • 1955: The rice girl (La risaia)
  • 1964: Amore mio

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roberto Poppi: Dizionario del cinema italiano. I registers. Gremese Editore, Rome 2002, p. 279
personal data
SURNAME Matarazzo, Raffaello
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Rome
DATE OF DEATH 17th May 1966
Place of death Rome