Germi, Pietro

(1914-1974)

   Actor, director, and screenwriter. Born into a family of very modest means, Germi held ambitions to become an officer and so enrolled in the Naval Institute of his native Genoa. Within three years, however, he had abandoned his plan in favor of attempting a career in the cinema. In 1937 he moved to Rome to study at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, where he proved to be a somewhat disruptive student, but not enough to be prevented from soon working as an assistant to Alessandro Blasetti on Retroscena (Backstage, 1939), and with Amleto Palermi on La peccatrice (The Sinner, 1940).

   After appearing as an extra in Blasetti's La corona di ferro (The Iron Crown, 1941) and Goffredo Alessandrini's Nozze di sangue (Blood Wedding, 1941), Germi made his directorial debut in 1945 with Il testimone (The Witness, released 1946), from a story that he had written himself and which was financed by the Catholic production company Orbis. Although superficially identified with neorealism, it was dark and expressionistic in tone and displayed, above all, the strong influence of American crime films, as did Gioventu perduta (Lost Youth, 1947) and In nome della legge (In the Name of the Law, 1948), which was set in Sicily and explored the influence of the Mafia but was also clearly indebted to the Westerns of John Ford. Germi came closer to the social commitment of neorealism with Il cammino della speranza (Path of Hope, 1950) and Il brigante di Tacca Del Lupo (The Bandit of Tacca del Lupo, 1952), but these were followed by two minor films, made on commission, which Germi himself would later dismiss: La presidentessa (Mademoiselle Gobete, 1952) and Gelosia (Jealousy, 1953). There was a return to a more socially committed style of filmmaking with Il ferroviere (The Rail-road Man, 1956) and L'uomo di paglia (A Man of Straw, 1958), in both of which he also played the lead, and he continued to direct himself in Un maledetto imbroglio (The Facts of Murder, 1959), an interesting if not altogether successful attempt to adapt Carlo Emilio Gadda's complex murder mystery, Quer pasticciccio brutto de Via Merulana.

   Germi's most famous film, however, and the one that brought him to international notice, was Divorzio all'italiana (Divorce Italian Style, 1961), which won two Nastri d'argento and two Golden Globes, was nominated for three Oscars, and won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. The film has continued to be regarded by many as one of the high points of the commedia all'italiana and certainly one of Marcello Mastroianni's finest performances. After another biting satire of Sicilian marriage customs and notions of honor in Sedotta e abbandonata (Seduced and Abandoned, 1963), which brought him the David di Donatello for direction, Germi turned his satirical sights north to the Veneto region in the three-episode Signori e signore (The Birds, the Bees and the Italians, 1965), which was poorly received in Italy but was awarded the Palme d'or at Cannes. There followed several other comedies: L'Immorale (Climax, 1966), which was thought by many to be a refracted portrait of Vittorio De Sica and his complicated love life, Serafino (1968), Le castagne sono buone (A Pocketful of Chestnuts, 1970), and Alfredo, Alfredo (1972), universally regarded as one of his least successful films in spite of the presence of Dustin Hoffman in the leading role. His last film would have been Amici miei (My Friends, 1975), which he had written and was preparing to shoot when he died, the film eventually being directed, to great acclaim, by Mario Monicelli.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira