Mauro Bolognini | |
---|---|
Born |
Pistoia, Kingdom of Italy |
28 June 1922
Died | 14 May 2001 Rome, Italy |
(aged 78)
Occupation | Film director, screenwriter, stage director |
Years active | 1953–1995 |
Mauro Bolognini (28 June 1922 – 14 May 2001) was an Italian film and stage director of literate sensibility, known for his masterly handling of period subject matter.
Bolognini was born in Pistoia, in the Tuscany region of Italy. After earning a master's degree in architecture at the University of Florence, Bolognini enrolled at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Italian National Film Academy) in Rome, where he studied stage design. After graduation, he became interested in film direction and set out to work as an assistant to directors Luigi Zampa in Italy, and Yves Allégret and Jean Delannoy in France.
Bolognini began directing his own feature films in the mid-1950s, and received his first international success with Wild Love (Gli innamorati). His other notable films of the 1950s and early 1960s include Young Husbands (Giovani mariti), The Big Night (La notte brava), From a Roman Balcony (La giornata balorda), and the Marcello Mastroianni-Claudia Cardinale starrer Il bell'Antonio (arguably his masterpiece), all written by Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Parting professionally with Pasolini in 1961, Bolognini directed two love stories starring Claudia Cardinale, The Lovemakers (La Viaccia) and Careless (Senilità), and the coming-of-age films Agostino and Corruption (La corruzione) before turning his talents to a series of international anthology films, including The Dolls (Le bambole), Three Faces of a Woman (I tre volti), The Queens (Le fate) and The Witches (Le streghe).