Brignone, Guido

(1887-1959)

   Actor and director. Belonging to a theatrical family—his father Giuseppe was a distinguished stage actor and his sister Mercedes acted for both the stage and screen— Brignone joined the Film d'Arte Italiana as an actor in 1913. Within three years he had graduated to directing and for the next decade he worked for all the major Italian studios. During the downturn in the industry in the early 1920s he continued to direct the only successful films that were being made at the time, the Fert-Pittaluga films featuring the legendary Maciste, which included the famous Maciste all'lnferno (Maciste in Hell, 1926). Brignone then worked in France and Germany for several years before being enticed back to the modernized Cines studios in Rome by Stefano Pittaluga at the beginning of the sound era.

   A prolific and highly professional director who could work across many genres with ease and who acquired a particular reputation for being able to get the best out of actors, Brignone made over 30 features in the following years, ranging from the legal thriller Corte d'Assise (Court of Assizes, 1930), through sophisticated comedies such as Paradiso (Paradise, 1933) to historical melodramas such as Teresa Confalonieri (Loyalty of Love, 1934), which received much acclaim at the Venice Festival that year. His most popular film during this period, however, was undoubtedly Vivere (To Live, 1937), an unashamedly heart-tugging melodrama built around the famous tenor Tito Schipa, with a catchy title song penned by Cesare Bixio. After the war Brignone continued to work in popular genres such as the musical and the Neapolitan melodrama. He concluded his career with Nel segno di Roma (Sign of the Gladiator, 1959), a sword-and-sandal epic in which Anita Ekberg as Zenobia, queen of Palmira, battles for love against the military might of Rome.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira