Editing Cesare Zavattini

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{short description|Italian screenwriter (1902–1989)}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Cesare Zavattini
| image       = Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico - BEIC 6341413.jpg
| alt         = 
| caption     = Cesare Zavattini (photo by [[Paolo Monti]], 1975)
| birth_name = 
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1902|9|20|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Luzzara]], Italy
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1989|10|13|1902|9|20|df=y}}
| death_place = Rome, Italy
| other_names = 
| known_for   = 
| death_cause = 
| occupation  = Screenwriter
| years_active = 1936–1975
| spouse =
| children = [[Arturo Zavattini]]
}}
'''Cesare Zavattini''' (20 September 1902 – 13 October 1989) was an Italian screenwriter and one of the first theorists and proponents of the [[Neorealism (art)|Neorealist]] movement in Italian cinema.

== Biography ==
Born in [[Luzzara]] near [[Reggio Emilia]] in northern Italy, on 20 September 1902, Zavattini studied law at the University of [[Parma]], but devoted himself to writing. He started his career in ''[[Gazzetta di Parma]]''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Giorgio Bertellini|author-link=Giorgio Bertellini|editor1=Gaetana Marrone |editor2=Paolo Puppa|editor3=Luca Somigli|title=Encyclopedia of Italian Literary Studies|year=2007
|publisher=Routledge|location=London; New York|isbn=9781579583903|page=2042|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2U8OAQAAMAAJ
|chapter=Cesare Zavattini (1902-1989)|volume=2}}</ref> In 1930 he relocated to [[Milan]], and worked for the book and magazine publisher [[Angelo Rizzoli]]. After Rizzoli began producing films in 1934, Zavattini received his first screenplay and story credits in 1936.  At the same time he was writing the plot for the comic strip ''[[Saturn against the Earth]]'' with [[Federico Pedrocchi]] (script) and Giovanni Scolari (art) for ''I tre porcellini'' (1936–1937)<ref name=horn1983>{{cite book|title=The World encyclopedia of comics|volume=5|last=Horn |first=Maurice |page=599 |year=1983 |publisher=[[Chelsea House]]|isbn=978-0-87754-323-7}}</ref> and ''[[Topolino]]'' (1937–1946).<ref>{{cite book |title=Le opere e i giorni di Cesare Zavattini. Dipinti (1938–1988) |last=Barilli |first=Renato |page=172 |year=1997 |publisher=Bora |isbn=978-88-85345-57-7 }}</ref>

In 1935, he met [[Vittorio De Sica]], beginning a partnership that produced  some twenty films, including such masterpieces of [[Italian neorealism]] as ''[[Shoeshine (film)|Sciuscià]]'' (1946), ''[[Bicycle Thieves|Ladri di biciclette]]'' (1948), ''[[Miracle in Milan|Miracolo a Milano]]'' (1951), and ''[[Umberto D.]]'' (1952).

In 1952, Zavattini gave an interview to The Italian Film Magazine 2, republished in English as "Some Ideas on the Cinema". The thirteen points Zavattini outlined are widely regarded as his manifesto to Italian neorealism.

In his only experience in Hollywood, Zavattini wrote the screenplay for ''[[The Children of Sanchez (film)|The Children of Sanchez]]'' (1978) based on [[Oscar Lewis]]'s book of the same title, a classic study of a Mexican family. At the [[11th Moscow International Film Festival]] in 1979, he was awarded the Honorable Prize for the contribution to cinema.<ref name="Moscow1979">{{cite web|url=http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1979 |title=11th Moscow International Film Festival (1979) |access-date=20 January 2013 |work=MIFF |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140403102012/http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1979 |archive-date=3 April 2014 }}</ref> In 1983 he was a member of the jury at the [[13th Moscow International Film Festival]].<ref name="Moscow1983">{{cite web|url=http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1983 |title=13th Moscow International Film Festival (1983) |access-date=28 January 2013 |work=MIFF |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131107141111/http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1983 |archive-date=7 November 2013 }}</ref>

Zavattini died in [[Rome]] on 13 October 1989.<ref>Ugo Pirro, ''Soltanto un nome nei titoli di testa'', Einaudi, Turin, 1998, p. 30.</ref>

==Directors==
Among the many celebrated directors of Italian and international cinema Zavattini worked with in his more than 80 films are:
* [[Vittorio De Sica]],
* [[Michelangelo Antonioni]],
* [[Hall Bartlett]],
* [[Alessandro Blasetti]],
* [[Mauro Bolognini]],
* [[Mario Camerini]],
* [[René Clément]],
* [[Federico Fellini]],
* [[Pietro Germi]],
* [[Alberto Lattuada]],
* [[Mario Monicelli]],
* [[Elio Petri]],
* [[Dino Risi]],
* [[Roberto Rossellini]],
* [[Mario Soldati]]
* [[Paolo and Vittorio Taviani]]
* [[Luchino Visconti]].

Also, In the short story "La Santa", by [[Nobel Prize]] winner [[Gabriel García Márquez]] a character is named after Zavattini. In the story, the character is a teacher of cinema.

==Selected filmography==
* ''[[I'll Give a Million (1936 film)|I'll Give a Million]]'' (1936)
* ''[[The Dance of Time]]'' (1936)
* ''[[Saint John, the Beheaded]]'' (1940)
* ''[[A Woman Has Fallen]]'' (1941)
* ''[[Don Cesare di Bazan]]'' (1942)
* ''[[Before the Postman]]'' (1942)
* ''[[Fourth Page]]'' (1942)
* ''[[The Children Are Watching Us]]'' (1943)
* ''[[Piruetas Juveniles / Romanzo a passo di danza]]'' (1943)
* ''[[The Gates of Heaven]]'' (1945)
* ''[[Rome, Free City]]'' (1946)
* ''[[Biraghin]]'' (1946)
* ''[[Un giorno nella vita]]'' (1946)
* ''[[The Testimony (1946 film)|The Testimony]]'' (1946)
* ''[[Shoeshine (film)|Sciuscià]]'' (1946)
* ''[[The Unknown Man of San Marino]]'' (1946)
* ''[[Crime News]]'' (1947)
* ''[[The Great Dawn (1947 film)|The Great Dawn]]'' (1947)
* ''[[Lost in the Dark (1947 film)|Sperduti nel buio]]'' (1947)
* ''[[Bicycle Thieves|Ladri di biciclette]]'' (1948)
* ''[[Twenty Years (film)|Twenty Years]]'' (1949)
* ''[[Miracle in Milan|Miracolo a Milano]]'' (1951)
* ''[[Mamma Mia, What an Impression!]]'' (1951)
* ''[[Umberto D.]]'' (1952)
* ''[[Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1954 film)|Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves]]'' (1954)
* ''L'oro di Napoli'' ("[[The Gold of Naples]]", 1954)
* ''La Ciociara'' ("[[Two Women]]", 1960)
* ''I sequestrati di Altona'' ("[[The Condemned of Altona (film)|The Condemned of Altona]]", 1962)
* ''L'isola di Arturo'' ("[[Arturo's Island]]", 1962)
* ''Ieri, oggi e domani'' ("[[Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (film)|Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow]]", 1963)
* ''[[Un monde nouveau]]'' (1966)
* ''[[Caprice Italian Style]]'' (1968)
* ''I girasoli'' ("[[Sunflower (1970 film)|Sunflower]]", 1970)
* ''Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini'' ("[[The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (film)|The Garden of the Finzi-Continis]]", 1970)
* ''Una breve vacanza'' ("[[A Brief Vacation]]", 1973)
* ''[[Lo chiameremo Andrea]]'' (1975)

==Bibliography==
* Mino Argentieri, ''Neorealismo ecc. / Cesare Zavattini'', Milano : Bompiani, 1979.
* Guglielmo Moneti, ''Lessico zavattiniano : parole e idee su cinema e dintorni'', Venezia,  Marsilio, 1992.
* Félix Monguilot Benzal, ''Piruetas juveniles: génesis, desarrollo y fortuna de la película olvidada de Cesare Zavattini en España'', Actas del XIII Congreso de la AEHC, Vía Láctea Editorial, Perillo, 2011, pp.&nbsp;381–390.
* Cesare Zavattini, ''Parliamo tanto di me'', Milano, Bompiani, 1977.
* Cesare Zavattini, 'Some Ideas on the Cinema,' Sight and Sound 23:2 (October–December 1953),64-9. Edited from a recorded interview published in La revista del cinema italiano 2 (December 1952). Translated by Pier Luigi Lanza

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|953790}} retrieved 15 October 2006
* [http://www.cesarezavattini.it/ Cesare Zavattini – Official website] {{in lang|it}}, retrieved 15 October 2006

{{Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zavattini, Cesare}}
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1989 deaths]]
[[Category:Italian atheists]]
[[Category:University of Parma alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian screenwriters]]
[[Category:Italian male screenwriters]]
[[Category:People from the Province of Reggio Emilia]]
[[Category:20th-century Italian male writers]]
[[Category:Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement recipients]]
[[Category:Italian neorealism]]