Vittorio De Seta | |
---|---|
Born |
Palermo, Italy |
15 October 1923
Died | 28 November 2011 Sellia Marina (Calabria), Italy |
(aged 88)
Occupation | Film director, screenwriter |
Years active | 1954–2011 |
Vittorio De Seta (15 October 1923 – 28 November 2011) was an Italian cinema director and screenwriter, considered one of the Italian cinema's great imaginative realists of the 1960s.
He was born in Palermo, Sicily, to a wealthy family, and studied architecture in Rome, before deciding to become a director.
De Seta made ten short documentaries between 1954 and 1959, before directing his first feature-length film, Banditi a Orgosolo (Bandits of Orgosolo).
His early documentaries focus on the everyday life of many of Sicily's poorest workers, and are notable for their lack of voice-over narration, quiet mood, and striking color.
In 2005 the rediscovery of Vittorio De Seta's work was a highlight of Tribeca Film Festival and Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, where Détour De Seta, a documentary on the Italian director was presented.