Pieraccioni, Leonardo

(1965-)

   Actor, director, screenwriter. After doing cabaret in his teens and small roles in minor films in the early 1990s, Pieraccioni was presented with the opportunity to make a feature film and so directed I laureati (Graduates, 1995), the story of the hopes and loves of four self-indulgent students who share an apartment in Florence, the lead being played by Pieraccioni himself. The film was critically panned but its unexpected and enormous box office success allowed Pieraccioni to go on to make Il ciclone (The Cyclone, 1996), a racy comedy focused on a small troupe of beautiful Spanish flamenco dancers who descend on a sleepy town in Tuscany, thereby provoking the storm of excited reactions that gives the film its title. As before, the film was not only popular but broke all previous Italian box office records and thus confirmed Pieraccioni's reputation as a bankable director.

   Always in partnership with screenwriter Giovanni Veronesi, Pieraccioni subsequently made Fuochi d'artificio (Fireworks, 1997), Il mio West (Gunslinger's Revenge, 1998), an amusing if rather familiar take on the Western exploiting the well-known faces of Harvey Keitel and David Bowie, Il pesce innamorato (The Fish in Love, 1999), and Il principe e il pirata (The Prince and the Pirate, 2001), a road movie about two childhood friends who eventually discover that they are actually siblings. After Il Paradiso all'improvviso (Suddenly Paradise, 2003), again critically panned but enormously successful at the box office, Pieraccioni has most recently directed Ti amo in tutte le lingue del mondo (I Love You in Every Language, 2005).

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira