Roberto Faenza
| Roberto Faenza | |
|---|---|
Faenza at the 2012 Miami International Film Festival presentation of Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You
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| Born |
21 February 1943 Turin, Italy |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Years active | 1968-present |
Roberto Faenza (born 21 February 1943) is an Italian film director. Born in Turin in 1943, Faenza received a degree in Political Science and a diploma at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.
He made his directing debut in 1968 with the international success, Escalation, a film that describes the different sides of power through the relationship between a middle-class father and his hippie son. Immediately after that he directed H2S, an angry apology of the 1968 movement, seized two days after its release and not distributed since. Upon this sequestration he travelled to the United States to teach at the Federal City College of Washington DC.
In 1978 he directed Forza Italia!, a ferocious satire on the power of the Italian Christian Democrat party covering thirty years of Italian political history. The film was withdrawn from the theatres on the day Aldo Moro, President of the Christian Democrats, was kidnapped, and remains banned for over 15 years. Aldo Moro being the one who will end his life recommending (in his handwritten memoirs found in the den of the Red Brigades in via Monte Nevoso in Milan) to see the film “if one wants to realize the recklessness of his fellow party members”.
In 1980 Faenza chose the Italian Communist Party as subject matter with Si salvi chi vuole. Considered as a politically incorrect director, he was forced to work outside of Italy to be able to find financing: in 1983 he filmed Copkiller in New York City with Harvey Keitel, Nicole Garcia and the leader of the Sex Pistols, Johnny Rotten.
His activities are not limited to cinema: author of essays and books (best known among them: Senza chiedere permesso, Il malaffare, Gli americani in Italia), upon his return in Italy he starts teaching Mass Communication at Pisa University. After Copkiller he became inspired by literature as a source of stories.
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