Shoes

Personal Info

Known For

Directing

Gender

Male

Birthday

1930-12-09

Place of Birth

Rome, Italy

Francesco Maselli

Biography

Francesco Maselli (9 December 1930 – 21 March 2023), also known as Citto Maselli , was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Born into a well educated family (his father was an art critic) originally from the Molise region, Maselli graduated from the Italian National Film School in 1949 and began his career as an assistant and assistant director for Luigi Chiarini , Michelangelo Antonioni , and Luchino Visconti. After directing several short documentary and fiction films, he gave his feature film debut with the World War II drama Abandoned (1955), which premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Following a series of minor films, Maselli had greater success with Silver Spoon Set (1960, also titled The Dolphins ) and Time of Indifference (1964), an adaptation of a novel by Alberto Moravia. In the 1970s, Maselli turned to openly left-wing political films, notably Open Letter to a newspaper of the evening (1970) and The Suspect (1975), before shifting to more intimate films centered on female protagonists in the 1980s such as A Tale of Love (1986) and The Secret (1990). In 2021, Maselli was honored with a retrospective at the Venice Film Festival, where many of his films had seen their premiere. Maselli died in Rome on 21 March 2023, at the age of 92.

Known for

The Name of the Rose

The Name of the Rose

14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence; which is considerable.

Amarcord

Amarcord

In an Italian seaside town, young Titta gets into trouble with his friends and watches various local eccentrics as they engage in often absurd behavior. Frequently clashing with his stern father and defended by his doting mother, Titta witnesses the actions of a wide range of characters, from his extended family to Fascist loyalists to sensual women, with certain moments shifting into fantastical scenarios.

Cesare Zavattini

Cesare Zavattini

Documentary about Italian film screenwriter Cesare Zavattini

Uomini forti

Uomini forti

The epic of Hercules and Maciste to the live voices of witnesses and through the images of the Italian film journals. And through interviews with Carlo Lizzani, Enrico Lucherini, Citto Maselli, Rosalba Neri, Mimmo Palmara, Carlo Verdone.

And the Ship Sails On

And the Ship Sails On

In 1914, a cruise ship sets sail from Naples to spread the ashes of beloved opera singer Edmea Tetua near Erimo, the isle of her birth. During the voyage, the eclectic array of passengers discovers a group of Serbian refugees aboard the vessel. Peace and camaraderie abound until the ship is descended upon by an Austrian flagship. The Serbians are forced to board it, but naturally they resist, igniting a skirmish that ends in destruction.

The Terrace

The Terrace

A terrace in Rome is a recurrent gathering place for a group of friends from the intellectual upper-class. Their lives unfold and intertwine, as they struggle with aging, disappointment and disillusion, until they are left with the realization that their generation, and everything it stood for, is coming to an end.

Open Letter to the Evening News

Open Letter to the Evening News

Hoping to shake up the complacent Italian Communist Party, a group of leftist radicals sends an incendiary letter to a major evening newspaper declaring their intention to volunteer to fight American troops in Vietnam as a political statement against the war.

Farewell to Enrico Berlinguer

Farewell to Enrico Berlinguer

A film of Enrico Berlinguer's funeral in Rome, briefly tracing his career as leader of the Italian Communist Party.

Il segreto di Otello

Il segreto di Otello

Franco Cristaldi e il suo cinema Paradiso

Franco Cristaldi e il suo cinema Paradiso

Alfonso Sansone: Producer by Chance

Alfonso Sansone: Producer by Chance

After the war, almost by chance, Alfonso Sansone started to produce documentary films and moved from Palermo to Rome, the city of film.

I Am Not God But I Am Michelangelo Antonioni

I Am Not God But I Am Michelangelo Antonioni

A documentary which explores the life and the career of Michelangelo Antonioni, one of the greatest Italian directors, through archival footage and interviews.

Investigation of a Citizen Named Volonté

Investigation of a Citizen Named Volonté

Indagine su un cittadino di nome Volonté is a documentary exploring the life and career of Italian actor Gian Maria Volonté. Known for his roles in films with significant political and social impact, this documentary offers an intimate look through interviews and archival footage, highlighting his commitment to cinema as a form of artistic expression and a tool for social change.

Gillo of Ladies and Knights, of Loves and Arms

Gillo of Ladies and Knights, of Loves and Arms

Pontecorvo is one of those Italian filmmakers marked for life by neorealism. He declares that he decided to do cinema after leaving a screening of "Paisa" by Roberto Rossellini. The future filmmaker was then in Paris, a year after a war during which he became one of the main figures of the Italian resistance and one of the founders of the Youth Front. Leaving his status as a war hero behind him, Pontecorvo made his directorial debut with "Giovanna", a short film heralding a cinematic career dedicated to what he himself calls the "dictatorship of truth."

Le Passeur immobile

Le Passeur immobile

Le Passeur immobile, which covers the year 1987, is a Booklet filmed stuck between The Days and the Nights (1986) and The Artifice and the Fake (1988). These Notebooks have been punctuating my activity as a filmmaker for about fifteen years. They are like a life parallel to my other films and film series (Cinema, Group Portrait, Read, etc.). They are also like a letter to the spectators.