Brancati, Vitaliano

(1907-1954)

   Novelist, playwright, screenwriter. Although better known for his novels and plays, Brancati also worked in the film industry as a screenwriter during the last decade of his life, beginning with his collaboration on the screenplay of Luigi Chiarini's La bella addormentata (Sleeping Beauty, 1943). His involvement with the cinema continued in the postwar period with a series of films that he wrote or cowrote for Luigi Zampa, including Anni difficili (Difficult Years, 1947), which he adapted from one of his own short stories, Anni facili (Easy Years, 1953), and L'arte di arrangiarsi (The Art of Getting Along, 1955). At the same time, he also worked on Mario Monicelli's Guardie e ladri (Cops and Robbers, 1951), Alessandro Blasetti's Altri tempi (Times Gone By, 1952), and Roberto Rossellini's Dov'e la liberta (Where Is Freedom? 1954). After his premature death in 1954, two of his novels were also adapted for the screen: Il bell'Antonio (Bell' Antonio, 1960), directed by Mauro Bolognini and starring Marcello Mastroianni, and Paolo il caldo (The Sensuous Sicilian, 1973), directed by Marco Vicario. In 1975 his play La governante (The Governess), which had drawn the ire of the censors in 1952 due to its references to female homosexuality, was also adapted for the screen in a film directed by Giovanni Grimaldi.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira