Alberto Lattuada

Alberto Lattuada, Italian director, screenwriter and producer, son of composer Felice Lattuada, was born in Milan on 13 November 1914. He graduated in architecture in his native city but soon developed an interest in photography and the cinema. Building on his early experience as a film critic, he made his directing debut in 1943 with Giacomo l’idealista (Giacomo the Idealist), then turned towards Neo-Realism in the aftermath of the 2nd World War with Il bandito (The Bandit, 1946), in which the female lead was Carla Del Poggio, who later became his wife. He discovered many young acting talents, including Catherine Spaak (Dolci inganni, Sweet Deceptions, 1960) and Nastassja Kinski (Così come sei, Stay as You Are, 1978), and was a lucid interpreter of the zeitgeist in Italy during the 1970s and ’80s, directing in acclaimed collaborations with Ugo Tognazzi (Venga a prendere il caffè… da noi, Come Have Coffee with Us, 1970), Renato Pozzetto (Oh, Serafina!, 1976) and Virna Lisi (La cicala, The Cricket, 1980). In 1998 he presented the contents of his personal archive to the Fondazione Cineteca Italiana in Milan, of which he had been one of the co-founders in 1947, while Carla Del Poggio donated her archive to the Cineteca di Bologna. Lattuada died on 3 July 2005 at his home in Orvieto.

Locarno Festival