Writers:Luigi Bazzoni (writer)
Mauro Bolognini (writer)
Original Music by Ennio Morricone

Release Date:24 April 1971 (Japan) more
Genre:Drama more
Plot:Metello struggles to escape from the poverty that led to the premature death of his parents, and that... more | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:Based On Novel
Awards:6 wins & 1 nomination more

Pratolini was reared in Florence, the setting of nearly all his fiction, in a poor family. He held various jobs until his health failed. His illness forced his confinement in a sanatorium from 1935 to 1937. He had no formal education but was an incessant reader, and during his confinement he began to write.

Pratolini went to Rome, where he met the novelist Elio Vittorini, who introduced him into literary circles and became a close friend. Like Vittorini, Pratolini rejected fascism; the Fascist government shut down Pratolini’s literary magazine, Campo di Marte, within nine months of its founding in 1939.

His first important novel, Il quartiere (1944; The Naked Streets), offers a vivid, exciting portrait of a gang of Florentine adolescents. Cronaca familiare (1947; Two Brothers) is a tender story of Pratolini’s dead brother. Cronache di poveri amanti (1947; A Tale of Poor Lovers), which has been called one of the finest works of Italian Neorealism, became an immediate best-seller and won two international literary prizes. The novel gives a panoramic view of the Florentine poor at the time of the Fascist triumph in 1925–26. Un eroe del nostro tempo (1949; A Hero of Today, or, A Hero of Our Time) attacks fascism.

Between 1955 and 1966 Pratolini published three novels under the general title Una storia italiana (“An Italian Story”), covering the period from 1875 to 1945. The first, Metello (1955), considered the finest of the three, follows its working-class hero through the labour disputes after 1875 and climaxes with a successful building masons’ strike in 1902. The second, Lo scialo (1960; “The Waste”), depicts the lassitude of the lower classes between 1902 and the mid-1920s preparatory to the Fascist takeover. The final volume, Allegoria e derisione (1966; “Allegory and Derision”), deals with the triumph and fall of Fascism, focusing on the moral and intellectual conflicts of the Florentine intelligentsia.(here)

Born in Florence, Pratolini worked at various jobs before entering the literary world thanks to his acquaintance with Elio Vittorini. In 1938 he founded, together with Alfonso Gatto, the magazine Campo di Marte. His work is based on firm political principles and much of it is rooted in the ordinary life and sentiments of ordinary, modest working-class people in Florence.

During World War II he fought with the Italian partisans against the German occupation. After the war he also worked in the cinema, collaborating as screenwriter to films such as Luchino Visconti's Rocco e i suoi fratelli , Roberto Rossellini's Paisà and Nanni Loy's Le quattro giornate di Napoli. In 1954 and 1961 Valerio Zurlini turned two of his novels, Le ragazze di San Frediano and Cronaca familiare, into films.

His most important literary works are the novels Cronaca familiare (1947), Cronache di poveri amanti (1947) and Metello (1955).

He died in Rome in 1991.

Works
Il tappeto verde (1941)
Via de' magazzini (1941)
Le amiche (1943)
Il quartiere (1943)
Cronaca familiare (1947)
Cronache di poveri amanti (1947)
Diario sentimentale (1947)
Un eroe del nostro tempo (1947)
Le ragazze di San Frediano (1949)
La domenica della povera gente (1952)
Lungo viaggio di Natale (1954)
Metello ( 1955)
Lo scialo (1960)
La costanza della ragione (1963)
Allegoria e derisione (1966)
La mia città ha trent'anni (1967)
Il mantello di Natascia (1985)

• Ragazze di San Frediano, Le (2007) (TV) (novel)
  
  
• "Scialo, Lo" (1987) TV mini-series (novel "Scialo, Lo")
• Eroe del nostro tempo, Un (1982) (TV) (novel)
  
  
• Diario di un italiano (1973) (story)
  ... aka Diary of an Italian
• Colonna infame, La (1972) (writer)
• Metello (1970) (novel)
  
  
• Costanza della ragione, La (1964) (novel)
• Muchacha primera (1964) (story)
• Quattro giornate di Napoli, Le (1962) (writer)
  ... aka The Four Days of Naples (USA)
• Cronaca familiare (1962) (novel) (screenplay)
• Viaccia, La (1961) (writer)
  ... aka Mauvais chemin, Le (France)
  ... aka The Lovemakers (USA: reissue title)
• Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960) (scenario)
  ... aka Rocco and His Brothers (UK) (USA)
  ... aka Rocco et ses fr鑢es (France)
  ... aka Rocco et ses freres (France: DVD title)
• Eroe del nostro tempo, Un (1960) (novel)
  
  
• Momento pi? bello, Il (1957) (story)
  ... aka Moment le plus beau, Le (France)
  ... aka The Most Wonderful Moment
  ... aka Wasted Lives (USA: reissue title)
• Ragazze di San Frediano, Le (1955) (novel)
  ... aka The Girls of San Frediano (USA: festival title)
• Tempi nostri (1954) (story "Mara")
  ... aka A Slice of Life (UK)
  ... aka Quelques pas dans la vie (France)
  ... aka The Anatomy of Love (USA)
  ... aka Zibaldone N. 2 (Italy: alternative title)
• Cronache di poveri amanti (1954) (novel "Cronache di poveri amanti")
  ... aka Chronicle of Poor Lovers (USA)
• Terza liceo (1954) (writer)
  ... aka High School (USA)
• Domenica della buona gente, La (1953) (writer)
  ... aka Good Folk's Sunday
• Appunti su un fatto di cronaca (1951) (writer)
  
  
• Pais?/a> (1946) (story) (uncredited)
  ... aka Paisan (USA)

Mauro Bolognini was born in Pistoia, Tuscany.

A former architectural student, Bolognini began his film career as an assistant to director Luigi Zampa in Italy, and directors Yves Allegret and Jean Delannoy in France. He began directing his own feature films in the mid 1950s, and had his first international success with Gli innamorati ("Wild Love").

His other notable films of the 1950s and early 1960s include Giovani mariti ("Young Husbands"), La notte brava, La giornata balorda ("From a Roman Balcony"), 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 went on to direct two sensual love stories starring Cardinale, La Viaccia and Senilit脿, before turning his talents to a series of international anthology films, including Le bambole (The Dolls), I tre volti ("Three Faces of a Woman"), Le fate ("The Queens") and Le streghe (The Witches).

Returning to features in the late 1960s with Mademoiselle De Maupin, his later works included the accomplished period dramas Metello and Bubu (both featuring Massimo Ranieri), Fatti di gente per bene (La Grande Bourgeoise) starring Giancarlo Giannini, Catherine Deneuve and Fernando Rey, L'eredit脿 Ferramonti (The Inheritance) with Anthony Quinn and Dominique Sanda, and La Dame aux cam茅lias featuring a young Isabelle Huppert.

In his later years, Bolognini continued directing feature films, as well as opera and the television miniseries The Charterhouse of Parma and The Time Of Indifference. His final feature was the soft-core erotic drama Husbands and Lovers, released in 1992.

He died in Rome in 2001.(Here)

Massimo Ranieri (name in art of Giovanni Calone), is an Italian pop singer, a film and stage actor, and a show-business personality. He was born in Naples (at Santa Lucia) on May 3, 1951.

One of the most popular entertainers in Italy in the past 30 years, he came to public awareness by winning two editions of the Canzonissima song festival in 1970 and 1972 with L'Amore e un attimo and Chi sara, and by representing Italy in the Eurovision song contest in 1971 in which he came 5th with L'amore è un attimo, as well as in 1973 when he came 13th with Chi sara con te. In 1988 he won the Sanremo festival with the song "Perdere l'amore", which became one of his greatest hits.

He is a nearly constant presence on Italian TV as a singer and a master of ceremonies. He starred in various successful movies since his debut in the title role of Mauro Bolognini's Metello in 1970. The same year co-starred alongside Anna Magnani in La sciantosa. Recently, his CD, Oggi e dimane --?renditions of his native Neapolitan songs set to North African instrumentation --?has had a great success.

Probably his most popular disc was Rose rosse, which featured his hits Rose rosse and Quando l'amore diventa poesia. (From WIKI)