ITALIA TOUR

DAMIANO DAMIANI DIRECTOR OF PORDENONE

Damiano Damiani (23 July 1922 – 7 March 2013) was an Italian screenwriter, film director, actor and writer. Poet and director Pier Paolo Pasolini referred to him as "a bitter moralist hungry for old purity", while film critic Paolo Mereghetti said that his style made him "the most American of Italian directors".

Born in Pasiano di Pordenone, Friuli, Damiani studied at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, then made his début in 1947 with the documentary La banda d'Affari. After a few years as a screenwriter, he directed his first feature film in 1960, Il rossetto. His 1962 film Arturo's Island won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. The 1960s were Damiani's "golden decade"; he was praised by critics and his films were box office successes.

In 1966 he directed Quien sabe?, one of the first and one of the most notable "political" Spaghetti Westerns. In 1968, with The Day of the Owl, he started a series of films in which social criticism, often related to the connections between politics and crime, was mixed with spectacular plots. His 1971 film Confessions of a Police Captain won the Golden Prize at the 7th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1973 Damiani débuted as an actor, playing Giovanni Amendola in Florestano Vancini's The Matteotti Murder.

In 1984 he directed one of the most famous Italian television series, La piovra, a description of the contemporary Italian Mafia and its involvement in politics. His last feature film was Assassini dei giorni di festa, directed in 2002.
Damiani died on 7 March 2013, at his home in Rome, from respiratory failure; he was 90 years old.

source wikipedia