Stefano Vanzina

Stefano Vanzina , called Steno (born January 19, 1915 in Rome , † March 12, 1988 ibid), was an Italian film director and screenwriter , who became known for numerous comedies , including those of the Commedia all'italiana .

Life

The son of Giulia Boggio and Alberto Vanzina emigrated to Argentina in his youth and later worked as a journalist for the Corriere della Sera . When he was three years old, his father died, leaving the family in dire economic straits. Vanzine graduated from high school and enrolled in the law department of the university, but he did not finish his studies. Instead, he began training as a set designer at the Accademia di Belle Arti in order to be admitted to the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia . Inspired by the creative environment, he began to draw caricatures and cartoons as well as to write vignettes and humorous texts under the pseudonym shorthand. He kept this pseudonym, a homage to the novelist Flavio Steno . Vanzina only used his family name in two films.

Vanzina initially wrote for the Tribuna Illustrata, later he became a member of the editorial board of the humorous magazine Marc'Aurelio . At the same time, he began radio plays and plays for the next five years, among others for Marcello Marchesi and Federico Fellini . Through this work he met Mario Mattòli, who opened the doors to the world of film for him. From then on, Vanzina wrote screenplays for Giorgio Simonelli , Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia , Riccardo Freda and Carlo Borghesio , among others . He was deputy director in numerous films, and he was an actor in two films.

In 1949 he made his directorial debut with Al diavolo la celebrità , in collaboration with Mario Monicelli , with whom he had been writing film scripts since the early post-war period. In early 1952 he produced his first own film, Totò a colori . In the next 30 years he was involved in numerous comedies with great success , as a director as well as a screenwriter and producer . Well-known Italian film comedians such as Totò and Alberto Sordi took part in his comedies . The disrespect and irony of his scripts led to a scandal in 1954 when his comedy Le avventure di Giacomo Casanova fell victim to censorship. Large parts were cut out and the work came on the canvas in mutilated form. A reconstructed version has since been performed by 62 ° Mostra del Cinema di Venezia .

Vanzina achieved international fame in the 1970s with the Flatfoot films, in which Bud Spencer played the leading role. In the 1970s and 80s he created pilot films and series episodes for Italian television. His last big screen work was the film Animali metropolitani, a relentless reckoning with the hedonistic Italian society of the late 1980s. The film came out three months after his death and met with little interest.

Twenty years after his death, a documentary was published under the name Steno, Genio Gentile, which premiered at the Festa del Cinema di Roma . With their jointly produced films, his two sons Enrico and Carlo Vanzina are among the most commercially successful contemporary Italian directors.

Filmography (selection)

script

• 1940: Abandoned (Abbandono)
• 1951: OK Nero (OK Nerone)

Director

• 1949: Totò cerca casa
• 1949: Only you are my dream (Al diavolo la celebrità)
• 1950: Dog life (Vita da cani)
• 1950: È arrivato il cavaliere
• 1951: Totò e il re di Roma
• 1951: robbers and gendarmes (Guardie e ladri)
• 1952: Totò and the women (Totò e le donne)
• 1952: Totò a colori
• 1953: L'uomo, la bestia e la virtù
• 1953: Infidelity (Le infedeli)
• 1953: Cinema d'altri tempi
• 1954: Three sinners (Un giorno in pretura)
• 1954: An American in Rome (Un americano a Roma)
• 1955: Piccola posta
• 1955: Casanova - his love and adventure (Le avventure di Giacomo Casanova)
• 1956: Nero's great nights (Mio figlio Nerone)
• 1957: Susanna tutta panna
• 1958: Mia nonna poliziotto
• 1958: Night watchman, thief and maid (Guardia, ladro e cameriera)
• 1958: Totò nella luna
• 1959: Totò, Eva e il pennello proibito
• 1959: Femmine tre volte
• 1959: I tartassati
• 1959: Bad times for vampires (Tempi duri per i vampiri)
• 1960: Whispers of barracks (Un militare e mezzo)
• 1960: A noi piace freddo…!
• 1960: Letto a tre piazze
• 1961: The three musketeers of the seas (I moschettieri del mare)
• 1961: La ragazza di mille mesi
• 1961: Psycosissimo
• 1962: Totò diabolicus
• 1962: Copacabana Palace
• 1962: I due colonnelli
• 1963: Totò contro i quattro
• 1963: Gli eroi del West
• 1964: I gemelli del Texas
• 1964: Un mostro e mezzo
• 1965: Amore all'italiana
• 1965: The right woman in the wrong bed (Letti sbagliati)
• 1967: Arrriva Dorellik
• 1967: Stage pigs (La feldmarescialla)
• 1968: Capriccio all'italiana (segment: Il mostro della domenica)
• 1968: The Invincible / Red Roses for Angelika (Rose rosse per Angelica)
• 1970: You don't sell your best piece (Il trapianto)
• 1971: On behalf of the Cosa Nostra (Cose di Cosa Nostra)
• 1971: Il vichingo venuto dal sud
• 1972: The Syndicate (La polizia ringrazia)
• 1972: Il terrore con gli occhi storti
• 1972: L'uccello migratore
• 1973: Anastasia mio fratello ovvero il presunto capo dell'Anonima Assassini
• 1973: They called him Flatfoot (Piedone lo sbirro)
• 1974: La poliziotta
• 1975: The little one with the big hammer (Il padrone e l'operaio)
• 1975: Flatfoot clears up (Piedone a Hong Kong)
• 1976: L'Italia s'è rotta
• 1976: Febbre da cavallo
• 1977: Tre tigri contro tre tigri
• 1977: Struck by lightning (Doppio delitto)
• 1978: Flat foot in Africa (Piedone l'africano)
• 1979: Flat foot on the Nile (Piedone d'Egitto)
• 1979: La patata bollente
• 1979: Dr. Jekyll's scary horror trip (Dottor Jekyll e gentile signora)
• 1980: Il Tango della gelosia
• 1980: Quando la coppia scoppia
• 1980: Fico d'India
• 1982: Sballato, gasato, completamente fuso
• 1982: Dio li fa e poi li accoppia
• 1982: Banana Joe (Banana Joe)
• 1982: Bonnie and Clyde in Italian (Bonnie e Clyde all'italiana)
• 1983: Magic Touch (Mani di fata)
• 1984: Mi faccia causa
• 1985: Cuore di pietra
• 1987: Animali metropolitani
• 1987: L'ombra nera del Vesuvio (mini series)
• 1988–1989: Jack Clementi - a call is enough ... (Big Man, TV series)

Web links

• Stefano Vanzina in the Internet Movie Database (English)