Ten Great Italian Directors. Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vittorio De Sica

De Sica (1901-1974) was one of the Fathers of Neo-Realism, who depicted the harsh life of the poor in post-war Italy, often using non-professional actors.
Other De Sica's memorable films are "Umberto D.", "Miracolo a Milano" and "La Ciociara". He often caste Sophia Loren.

Answer: Federico Fellini

Fellini (1920-1993) decidedly had a style of his own, often imitated to no avail.
You'll find his films sometimes a little boring, but also in the first places of any "greatest movies of all time" list. For instance there are "La Dolce Vita", "Satyricon", "Amarcord" and "La Strada".

Answer: Michelangelo Antonioni

Antonioni (1912-2007) was especially famous for the very hermetic, early-sixties "Trilogy of Modernity": "L'Avventura"; "La Notte" and "L'Eclisse". He shot two famous English-language movies: "Blow-Up", and "The Passenger" (Italian title "Professione Reporter"). Great? Yes. For everybody's taste? No.

Answer: Giuseppe Pastrone

Pastrone (1883-1959) was simply the man who invented the epic movie, in the silent era, even before Griffith. This, at least, is Martin Scorsese's opinion, and mine, humbly said.
His historical dramas were incredibly huge productions for the time, with thousands of extras. Then WWI required the presence of many extras elsewhere.

Answer: Giuseppe Tornatore

Tornatore (1956) with this film won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1990. I'd like to mention also "Malena" with the incredibly beautiful Monica Bellucci, "Baaria" and "The Best Offer", the latter starring Geoffrey Rush and Donald Sutherland.

Answer: Bernardo Bertolucci

Bertolucci (1941-2018), was ultra-hip, wasn't he? Do you remember Brando, quite overweight, with an often-unclad Maria Schneider in an apartment in Paris, where nothing happens? That's Bertolucci.
Honorable mentions: "The Last Emperor", "1900".

Answer: Dino Risi

Risi (1961-2008) is the master of "Commedia all'Italiana" (Comedy Italian Style). His films have often very skillfully-written and witty screenplays. "The Easy Life" (Italian title "Il Sorpasso", meaning "the overtaking") is a sweet-and-sour comedy with Vittorio Gassman and Jean-Louis Trintignant traveling though Italy with a beautiful Lancia car in the midst of the "Economical Boom" of the '60s, with many funny moments and a bitter end.
Risi directed also "Profumo di Donna" ("Scent of a Woman", remade in the USA by director Martin Brest, starring Al Pacino).

Answer: Luchino Visconti

Count Visconti di Modrone (1906-1976) was a true great. A Neo-realist author after the war until the early '60s with "The Earth Trembles", "Ossessione" and "Rocco and His Brothers", he developed a more personal style with the grandiose "The Leopard" and "The Death in Venice" (from Thomas Mann).

Answer: Sergio Leone

Leone (1929-1989) invented the "Spaghetti Western" with this film, under the pseudonym of "Robert Robertson" to get more credibility as an author of westerns. A low budget film, shot in Spain, that mimicked almost frame-by-frame Kurosawa's "Jojimbo" (Akira sued and won), it featured Clint Eastwood donning a Stetson he himself had bought in the States as there were no spare hats available.
Yet, it was a huge success, followed by other Leone's masterpieces like "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly", "Once Upon a Time in the West" and "Once Upon a Time in America".
Scores by Ennio Morricone.

Answer: Roberto Rossellini

Rossellini (1906-1977) was one of the great directors of Neorealist Cinema. "Rome, Open City" was shot just after the end of WWII, the plot being about tragedies that happened just the previous year when Rome was occupied by Nazi troops. It included one of the most famous sequences in the history of Italian cinema - when Anna Magnani's character ran after a truck that was carrying away her husband as a hostage and she was shot dead by a machine gun.