He directed films such as Giacomo l'idealista (1943), Il bandito (1946) with Anna Magnani, Senza pietà (1948) with actress Giulietta Masina and screenplay with Frederico Fellini, Il mulino del Po (1949), Luci del varietà (1950, co-direction Fellini), La spiaggia (1954), Mafioso (1962) and Una spina nel cuore (1986).
Lattuada made literary adaptations, social satires, crime thrillers and war films. They are films of great beauty, full of ambiguity, made by a non-conformist who deserves to be rediscovered by large audiences.
Alberto Lattuada
Master next to Fellini
2 — 29 March 2023
still from Così come sei (Alberto Lattuada, IT/ES 1978)
He was affiliated to the neorealism movement, but at the same time was able to mix his polished style with a preference for genre and popular stories. He was open to influences from Hollywood genres, particularly the thriller and melodrama.
With the rediscovery of Alberto Lattuada, one of the best-kept secrets of Italian cinema can finally be seen again. Lattuada is an often-overlooked filmmaker whose productive career encompasses more than four decades of Italian cinema.
still from Guendalina (Alberto Lattuada, IT/FR 1957)
still from Luci del varietà (Federico Fellini, Alberto Lattuada, IT 1950)
Alberto Lattuada is often seen as eccentric and hard to classify: he made a kind of cinema that was modern, and simultaneously highbrow and lowbrow.
As a sharp observer, he was often ahead of his time in picking up the big social changes of the second half of the 20th century. Many of the films by this Italian director have been restored.
still from La cicala (Alberto Lattuada, IT 1980)
still from Guendalina (Alberto Lattuada, IT/FR 1957)
It took a long time for his films to really be understood. Lattuada was an incisive chronicler of the bourgeoisie and human frailties. He was a great director who worked with a number of the biggest Italian and international stars of the era, and also discovered many talented newcomers – in particular actresses such as Jacqueline Sassard, Catherine Spaak, Nastassja Kinski and Clio Goldsmith.
“Nowhere are the foundations of a nation as clearly revealed as in the cinema”: this was Alberto Lattuada’s vision of the power of cinema in 1945, when together with other filmmakers he transformed cinemas into venues for civic, political and moral commitment.
still from Il bandito (Alberto Lattuada, IT 1946)
still from Senza pietà (Alberto Lattuada, IT 1947)
still from Mafioso (Alberto Lattuada, IT 1962)
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still from La spiaggia (Alberto Lattuada, IT/FR 1954)
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