Vincenzoni, Luciano

(1926-)

   Screenwriter and producer. Having graduated with a degree in law from university, Vincenzoni nevertheless turned his back on a legal career in order to work in cinema. His first collaboration was with Pietro Germi on the screenplay of Il Ferroviere (1955). After a number of less-distinguished films, such as Angelo Dorigo's Amore e guai (Love and Troubles, 1958), he established his reputation as a first-rate screenwriter by writing the story and the screenplay for Mario Monicelli's La grande guerra (The Great War, 1959). Having collaborated with Carlo Lizzani on the script for Il gobbo (The Hunchback of Rome, 1960), and with Mario Camerini on Crimen (And Suddenly It's Murder! 1960) and I briganti italiani (The Italian Brigands, 1961), he worked again with Germi on Sedotta e abbandonata (A Matter of Honor, 1963) and Signori e signore (The Birds, the Bees and the Italians, 1965), both of which earned him a Nastro d'argento. Greater financial success came from his sometimes stormy collaboration with Sergio Leone, with whom he worked on Per qualche dollaro in piu (For a Few Dollars More, 1965), Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, 1966) and Giu la testa (Duck, You Sucker, 1971).

   He subsequently worked on a wide range of both Italian and international films, including the unsuccessful Jaws imitation, Orca (The Killer Whale, 1977), directed by Michael Anderson, which Vicenzoni produced as well as scripted, and Duccio Tessari's CIA thriller Beyond Justice (1992). In 1996 he was awarded the Flaiano International Prize for his career achievement. In 2000 his short story "Ma l'amore no" ("But Not Love") was used by Giuseppe Tornatore as the basis for the screenplay of Malena (2000).

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira