Damiano Damiani Biography
Damiano Damiani (1922 - 2013) was a director and screenwriter, as well as an actor and set designer, born in Pasiano di Pordenone in 1922. Having completed his painting studies at the Brera Academy in Milan, he entered the world of cinema in 1947 making a documentary "La banda d'Affori", which he directed and wrote, followed in 1954 by "Le giostre". After an intense documentary activity, in 1959, he made his directorial debut with "The lipstick". Among the actors Pietro Germi, a great talent behind and in front of the camera. From the same year is "Il Sicario", a noir that points the finger at the rottenness of a certain unscrupulous Italian bourgeoisie, interested only in enriching itself. From his first works it appears clear that Damiani's cinema is not only artistic expression, but is above all a means of social denunciation, which shows without censorship the normality with which many experience violence, power subservient to its own interest, the injustices that surround. All without penalizing the narrative plot. In 1962 he made his first film adaptation of a literary work with "Arturo's Island" (1963, based on a novel by Elsa Morante). The director feels ever more deeply the need to create works that are the expression of a strong civil commitment, hence his interest in mafia crime, whose criminal potential is underestimated by many. Among these was Leonardo Sciascia, who with "The day of the owl", from 1961, had already denounced its danger. Damiani brings the novel to the screen. In 1971 he directed two detective films, where the denunciation of mafia crime marries the action: "Confession of a Police Commissioner to the Public Prosecutor" with Martin Balsam and Franco Nero and "The investigation is closed: forget it". In 1984 Damiano Damiani directed the crime series par excellence on Italian TV, "La ipopra", where with particular skill he depicted the mafia of today, the one colluding with some institutions, which are debased and manipulated by it. It will continue for ten seasons. He later collaborated with the small screen until 2001. He died in Rome in 2013.
