Born in Palena on the 30th November, 1893, Ettore Margadonna is one of the most important writers of the Italian cinema of the 50’s.
His educational background does not seem to herald the success that awaited him, in fact he studied economics and worked with "The cooperation” and "The Coffee" magazines.
He soon showed interest for film and after working in "Comedy" and with "Italian Illustrators" it led him to write the book "Cinema Yesterday and Today", one of the first attempts in Italy to settle the complex matter of film history up to that point, but it was the contact with the cultural history of Berlin in the 30s that showed him the way forward. He moved to Germany and since 1932 he attended the studios of Berlin, an experience that enriched him greatly.
From 1943 Margadonna devoted himself exclusively to writing scripts and screenplays for film, he worked closely with the directors Corrado D'Enrrico and Gennaro Righelli, but it was with Luigi Comencini that came the success of the series ‘Bread Love and Dreams’ in which the youth who lived in the small town of Palena, were taken from their everyday surroundings to give life to a fun story in which most of the Italians were able to recognize themselves and their existence, not in a key social documentation neorealism as he wanted at the time, but light-hearted and breezy. According to the definition of Dino Risi, Margadonna was a "neorealist pink." The young Gina Lollobrigida and already famous Vittorio De Sica contributed to the success of a film that gave birth to a series of great success, which, in some respects "trapped" Margadonna, because he would have so wanted to make a film from his collection of short stories " God sows men" but now, somehow he was obliged to remain in the lighter genre of comedy.
At a time of severe crisis in Cinecittà, he was asked to implement his skills as an economist and proceed dismantling the city of the Italian cinema, he accepted the assignment and proceeded along a different route: he made an agreement with Federico Fellini to record for free the movie "The sweet life" ensuring Cinecittà the ownership of the film, and so it was that money began to arrive in abundance and the city of films survived ..
No one knows why Ettore Margadonna left the scene, he who had given life to the Italian comedy- a genre that is still liked today, an all round intellectual, anti-fascist, socialist, capable of ranging from straight, to Latin, to hip, to music. He left the world of cinema and no one knows the reason why.
Bibliography and web writing essential
XVI Flaiano Award, Homage to Ettore Margadonna, Pescara 1989.
Born in Palena on the 30th November, 1893, Ettore Margadonna is one of the most important writers of the Italian cinema of the 50’s.
His educational background does not seem to herald the success that awaited him, in fact he studied economics and worked with "The cooperation” and "The Coffee" magazines.
He soon showed interest for film and after working in "Comedy" and with "Italian Illustrators" it led him to write the book "Cinema Yesterday and Today", one of the first attempts in Italy to settle the complex matter of film history up to that point, but it was the contact with the cultural history of Berlin in the 30s that showed him the way forward. He moved to Germany and since 1932 he attended the studios of Berlin, an experience that enriched him greatly.
From 1943 Margadonna devoted himself exclusively to writing scripts and screenplays for film, he worked closely with the directors Corrado D'Enrrico and Gennaro Righelli, but it was with Luigi Comencini that came the success of the series ‘Bread Love and Dreams’ in which the youth who lived in the small town of Palena, were taken from their everyday surroundings to give life to a fun story in which most of the Italians were able to recognize themselves and their existence, not in a key social documentation neorealism as he wanted at the time, but light-hearted and breezy. According to the definition of Dino Risi, Margadonna was a "neorealist pink." The young Gina Lollobrigida and already famous Vittorio De Sica contributed to the success of a film that gave birth to a series of great success, which, in some respects "trapped" Margadonna, because he would have so wanted to make a film from his collection of short stories " God sows men" but now, somehow he was obliged to remain in the lighter genre of comedy.
At a time of severe crisis in Cinecittà, he was asked to implement his skills as an economist and proceed dismantling the city of the Italian cinema, he accepted the assignment and proceeded along a different route: he made an agreement with Federico Fellini to record for free the movie "The sweet life" ensuring Cinecittà the ownership of the film, and so it was that money began to arrive in abundance and the city of films survived ..
No one knows why Ettore Margadonna left the scene, he who had given life to the Italian comedy- a genre that is still liked today, an all round intellectual, anti-fascist, socialist, capable of ranging from straight, to Latin, to hip, to music. He left the world of cinema and no one knows the reason why.
Bibliography and web writing essential
XVI Flaiano Award, Homage to Ettore Margadonna, Pescara 1989.
