Zavattini, Cesare

Born Sept. 20, 1902, in Ludsara. Italian writer, scenario writer, and film theoretician.

Zavattini graduated in 1923 from the department of law at the University of Padua. The author of novellas and collections of short stories, he began his literary activity in 1928. Since 1935 he has been working in film. Films that prepared the way for neorealism in the Italian cinema, including Walk in the Clouds (1942) and The Children Are Looking at Us (1943), were based on his plots and scenarios. Italian cinema profited greatly from Zavattini’s long-standing artistic collaboration with the director V. De Sica, which resulted in the films Shoeshine (1946), The Bicycle Thief (194S), Miracle in Milan (1950), Umberto D. (1951), The Roof (1956), Two Women (1960), The Condemned of Altona (1961), Boom (1963), Marriage Italian Style (1964), and Sunflower (1970, together with A. Guerra and M. D. Mdivani). In Some Thoughts on Film and in his articles and appearances, Zavattini, in his characteristic polemical manner, developed theoretical views that to a large extent served as the theoretical basis for neorealism. He has participated in the production of over 40 films, including Rome, 11 O’Clock; A Husband for Anna (Soviet title, Lost Reveries)’, and The Most Beautiful. Zavattini is the head of a nationwide association of film clubs. In 1955 he received the International Peace Prize for his social activity.