Alessandrini, Goffredo

(1904-1978)

   Director. Born in Cairo to Italian parents, Alessandrini abandoned an engineering degree at Cambridge University in order to pursue his passion for the cinema. In between working as assistant to Alessandro Blasetti on Sole (Sun, 1928) and Terra madre (Earth Mother, 1932), he produced an impressive documentary on the making of the Nag Hamadi Dam (La diga di Nag Hamadi, 1929). His first fictional feature, La segretaria privata (The Private Secretary, 1931), the Italian version of a light comedy that had already been shot in German, French, and English, proved extremely popular and established his professional reputation. After several years in Hollywood as a consultant for bilingual versions at MGM, Alessandrini returned to Italy to direct Seconda B (1934), another light sentimental comedy set in a girls' college (the title refers to a high school class), scripted by Umberto Barbaro.

   A biography of the Silesian saint Don Bosco was followed by Cavalleria (Cavalry, 1936), a historical melodrama much admired for its period recreation and for Amedeo Nazzari's portrayal of the self-sacrificing cavalry officer. Romantic military heroism returned as a theme in Luciano Serra pilota (Luciano Serra, Pilot, 1938), a film nominally supervised by Vittorio Mussolini but on which the young Roberto Rossellini also worked as scriptwriter. Abuna Messias (Cardinal Messias, 1939) and Giarabub (1941) were both epic stories set in Africa—the latter recounting the heroic resistance of Italian troops besieged by the English at the oasis of Giarabub — and suggested to some that Alessandrini was supporting the colonialist aspirations of the Fascist regime. However, his next film, Noi vivi (We the Living, 1942), adapted from a novel by Ayn Rand, although ostensibly directed against the Russian Communist system, appeared to denounce the corruption at the heart of all totalitarianism.

   In the postwar period Alessandrini's putative closeness to the regime counted against him and he worked mostly abroad. The most impressive of the few films he directed in Italy was Camicie Rosse (Redshirts, also known as Anita Garibaldi, 1952), a film about the

   Risorgimento hero Giuseppe Garibaldi and his partner Anita, played by a fiery Anna Magnani. For a number of reasons, including ill health but also tension between the director and Magnani, who were in the middle of a marriage breakup at the time, the film was eventually completed by the young Francesco Rosi.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira