Silvestro Prestifilippo

Silvestro Prestifilippo (born September 17, 1921 in Caronia , † June 10, 1975 in Messina ) was an Italian journalist, author and film director .

Life

Prestifilippo and his family moved to Genoa , his mother's hometown, soon after his birth . As early as 1938 he wrote his first theater reviews and worked for anti-fascist newspapers. In 1941 he published his first long story, Amore antico . The following year - the circumstances of the war made him stay in Reggio Calabria for the first time - a volume of stories followed, Anima amara . Prestifilippo, who was active in the Socialist Party with Guglielmo Calarco, processed his war experiences in the essay Pagine di passato e di avvenire . The Storie d'amore , published in 1945, conclude his early work in a lyrical-descriptive style.

He continued his journalistic activities as the author of "La Luce" and was one of the first authors of Il Tempo . His novel Il solitario was also published in the last year of the war and the first post-war year, 1945. Two years later he made his first experiences with the medium of film, initially as a documentarist. In La Voce his novel was Il nome del dolore published by chapter. After Il mondo sulle strade Prestofilippo moved to Rome, where he met numerous other artists. He shot parts of the documentary Cuore d'Aspromonte and made his debut as a playwright with the three-act Crepusculo . Always productive, another novel was published, E domani è lunedi , also in 1949. In 1950 he directed Terra senza tempo for the cinema based on his own novel . Two years later, after a short film, Carlo Musso was his co-director for Carne inquieta . Another documentary, Uva a settembre, about his former adopted home of Reggio Calabria, concludes his filmmaking; a Shakespeare adaptation of The Tempest for the cinema was not realized.

In the mid-1950s, Prestifilippo published a number of short stories and essays, wrote for L'Ora, and moved to Messina . After the long story Una stagione per morire and the Incontri col Sud collection , he worked for Il Mattino and the Tribuna di Mezzogiorno . Autobiographical components can be found in some publications from the 1960s, such as Tramonto di un personaggio or the Verssammlung Blues . During these years he accompanied current events such as the earthquake in the Belice Valley in 1968 or the unrest in Reggio Calabria in 1970 with intensive comments and observations. These also appeared in national and international newspapers.

After a first heart attack in 1974 his last work, which was published with the Premio Calabria excellent Mafia: quarta OnData . After another heart attack in January 1975, Prestifilippo died in the middle of that year.

Filmography

• 1950: Terra senza tempo
• 1952: Carne inquieta (co-director)

Works (selection)

• 1943: Anima amara
• 1949: Terra senza tempo
• 1974: Mafia: quarta ondata

Web links

• Silvestro Prestifilippo in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Roberto Poppi: Dizionario del cinema italiano. I registers. Gremese Editore, Rome 2002, p. 347
2. ↑ Extensive biography at La Zattera dell'Arte di Francesca Tortorella
3. ↑ [1]