Michelangelo Antonioni was an Italian director and filmmaker. He is best known for his "trilogy on modernity and its discontents"—L'Avventura (1960), La Notte (1961), and L'Eclisse (1962)—as well as the English-language film Blowup (1966). His films have been described as "enigmatic and intricate mood pieces" that feature elusive plots, striking visual composition, and a preoccupation with modern landscapes. His work substantially influenced subsequent art cinema. Antonioni received numerous awards and nominations throughout his career, being the only director to have won the Palme d'Or, the Golden Lion, the Golden Bear and the Golden Leopard.
L'Avventura is a 1960 Italian drama film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Developed from a story by Antonioni with co-writers Elio Bartolini and Tonino Guerra, the film is about the disappearance of a young woman during a boating trip in the Mediterranean, and the subsequent search for her by her lover and her best friend. It was filmed on location in Rome, the Aeolian Islands, and Sicily in 1959 under difficult financial and physical conditions. The film is noted for its unusual pacing, which emphasizes visual composition, mood, and character over traditional narrative development.
Silvana Mangano was an Italian film actress. She was one of a generation of thespians who arose from the neorealist movement, and went on to become a major female star, regarded as a sex symbol for the 1950s and '60s. She won the David di Donatello for Best Actress three times - for The Verona Trial (1963), The Witches (1967), and The Scientific Cardplayer (1973) – and the Nastro d'Argento for Best Actress twice.
Carlo Fortunato Pietro Ponti Sr.OMRI was an Italian film producer with more than 140 productions to his credit. Along with Dino De Laurentiis, he is credited with reinvigorating and popularizing Italian cinema post-World War II, producing some of the country's most acclaimed and financially-successful films of the 1950s and 1960s.
Monica Vitti was an Italian actress who starred in several award-winning films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni during the 1960s. She appeared with Marcello Mastroianni, Alain Delon, Richard Harris, Terence Stamp, and Dirk Bogarde. On her death, Italian culture minister Dario Franceschini called her "the Queen of Italian cinema".
My Voyage to Italy is a personal documentary by acclaimed Italian-American director Martin Scorsese. The film is a voyage through Italian cinema history, marking influential films for Scorsese and particularly covering the Italian neorealism period.
Piero Piccioni was an Italian film score composer and lawyer.
Eros is a 2004 anthology film consisting of three short segments: The Hand directed by Wong Kar-wai in Mandarin, Equilibrium by Steven Soderbergh in English, and The Dangerous Thread of Things by Michelangelo Antonioni in Italian. Each segment addresses the themes of love and sex.
Love in the City is a 1953 Italian anthology film composed of six segments, each with its own director. The segments and filmmakers are: Paid Love, Attempted Suicide, Paradise for Three Hours, Marriage Agency, Story of Caterina, and Italians Stare.
The Witches is a 1967 commedia all'italiana anthology film produced by Dino De Laurentiis in 1965. It consists of five comic stories, directed by Luchino Visconti, Franco Rossi, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Mauro Bolognini and Vittorio De Sica. Each story is about witches and features Silvana Mangano.
The Nastro d'Argento for Best Director is a film award bestowed annually as part of the Nastro d'Argento awards since 1946, organized by the Italian National Association of Film Journalists, the national association of Italian film critics.
Franco Fabrizi was an Italian actor.
Le Amiche is a 1955 Italian drama film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni and starring Eleonora Rossi Drago, Gabriele Ferzetti, Franco Fabrizi, and Valentina Cortese. Based on Cesare Pavese's 1949 novella Tra donne sole, Le Amiche portrays a group of five upper-class women in Turin and their various relationships with men. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival where it was awarded the Silver Lion.
Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia or A Crazy, Crazy, Crazy Race in Russia is a 1974 Soviet-Italian comedy film directed by Eldar Ryazanov and Franco Prosperi. The plot is about a group of Italian treasure hunters who set on a journey to find long-forgotten treasure in Leningrad.
Beyond the Clouds is a 1995 Italian-French-German romance film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, with contributions by Wim Wenders, and starring John Malkovich, Sophie Marceau, Vincent Perez, Irène Jacob, and Jean Reno. The film consists of four stories of romantic love and illusion told from the perspective of a wandering film director. In the first story, two beautiful young lovers are unable to consummate their passion because the young man desires impossible perfection. In the second story, the director makes love to a young woman who reveals that she murdered her father. In the third story, a man makes an effort to appease both his wife and his mistress. In the fourth story, a young man is infatuated with a girl who is about to enter a convent. This was the final feature-length film by Antonioni before his death in 2007.
Enrica Antonioni born Enrica Fico, is an Italian film director and actress, the widow of Michelangelo Antonioni.
Chung Kuo, Cina is a 1972 Italian television documentary directed by Michelangelo Antonioni. Antonioni and his crew were invited to China and filmed for five weeks, beginning in Beijing and travelling southwards. The resulting film was attacked as slanderous by Chinese authorities and the Italian Communist Party.
The 11th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 23 June to 4 July 1961. The Golden Bear was awarded to the Italian film La notte directed by Michelangelo Antonioni.
Il comune senso del pudore is a 1976 Italian comedy film. It stars Alberto Sordi, which is also the director, Claudia Cardinale and Philippe Noiret.
The Nastro d'Argento is a film award assigned annually, since 1946, by Sindacato Nazionale dei Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani the association of Italian film critics.
