De Santis, Giuseppe

Born Feb. 11, 1917, in Fondi. Italian movie director.

De Santis graduated from the department of philosophy of the University of Rome (1939). He studied in the acting and directing divisions of the Rome Experimental Film Center and is one of the founders of neorealism. In the years 1942-45 he became famous as a movie critic. He fought in the Italian Resistance from 1943 to 1945 and joined the Italian Communist Party. His first film, The Tragic Hunt (1947), already embodied the director’s political and artistic views. His best films are No Peace Among the Olives (1950), Rome Eleven O’clock (1952), Anna (1953; Lost Dreams in the Soviet version), and Road a Year Long (1958, filmed in Yugoslavia). In 1964 he directed the joint Soviet-Italian film They Went East. The films of De Santis raise problems of the life and struggle of Italian workers and are sharply social in outlook. Romantic exuberance, a passionate temperament, and humanity characterize these films. De Santis participates actively in the social concerns of Italy and defends progressive film-making.