 Photo: Jeff Vespa © WireImage.com |
Born in Milan, Italy. Dino Risi became a movie director by chance. In 1940 he met Alberto Lattuada in a boutique of a friend. Lattuada told him: "We need an assistant director for the movie PICCOLO MONDO ANTICO (1941). Do you wanna come?". Risi accepted -- just for fun, not for work. After that he became a psychiatrist and, in his free-time, wrote some articles for a local newspaper. After WW II, he met a producer who financed his short films. One of these, BUIO IN SALA (1948), was bought by Carlo Ponti. In that moment, Risi decided to become a movie director. So he went to Rome and wrote the plot of POVERI MA BELLI (1957), the movie that gave him notoriety. But the movie of his life is IL SORPASSO / THE EASY LIFE (1962): the night of the first showing, Risi and producer Mario Cecchi Gori were waiting outside the movie theatre. They were worried because no audience was entering to see the movie. So Risi went back home, unhappy. But, three hours later a frend called him: "Dino, wonderful! IL SORPASSO has been a success!". The day after the movie theatre was sold out. And Risi became a star. IL SORPASSO supplied the plot for his later film PROFUMO DI DONNA / SCENT OF A WOMAN (1974). "I made more than 50 movies because I was sure that one of them could become a masterpiece."
He lived in a suite of rooms in a famous Rome hotel after he left his wife, Claudia. About his son Marco Risi, a director himself, he said: "I never helped Marco in the job. He came on the set sometimes when he was a child, but now he always works without my suggestions. I think he is a excellent director."
1 nomination |
Nominated for Writing (Best Screenplay adapted from other material)