Motion picture director, producer and screenwriter.
Began as a film critic before joining the Italian film company Cines as a script doctor. Producer Giuseppe Amato soon gave him the opportunity to direct. After the great success of his first film, the comedy "Treno popolare" (1933), he stayed in this genre for the next years, turning to melodrama in the late 1930s. With "Catene" (1949) he became one of the most successful directors in Italy in the 50s, often working with the "Catene" stars Amedeo Nazzari and Yvonne Sanson. Audience loved his melodramas, critics, however, have tended to disparage his work and dismiss it as 'saccharine neorealism.' Towards the end of the decade, his success declined more and more, but since the 1970s, some film critics have tried to restore Matarazzo's reputation as a special filmmaker with his own style. Credits include "Kiki" (1934), "Il marchese di Ruvolito" (1939), "Notte di fortuna" (1941), "Tormento" (1950), "I figli di nessuno" (1951), "La nave delle donne maledette" (1953), "Giuseppe Verdi" (1953), "L'angelo bianco" (1955), "La risaia" (1956/with Folco Lulli and Elsa Martinelli), "L'ultima violenza" (1957), "Cerasella" (1959), "Adultero lui, adultera lei" (1963) and "Amore mio" (1964). He died, only 56 years old, in a roman clinic of a heart attack.
Began as a film critic before joining the Italian film company Cines as a script doctor. Producer Giuseppe Amato soon gave him the opportunity to direct. After the great success of his first film, the comedy "Treno popolare" (1933), he stayed in this genre for the next years, turning to melodrama in the late 1930s. With "Catene" (1949) he became one of the most successful directors in Italy in the 50s, often working with the "Catene" stars Amedeo Nazzari and Yvonne Sanson. Audience loved his melodramas, critics, however, have tended to disparage his work and dismiss it as 'saccharine neorealism.' Towards the end of the decade, his success declined more and more, but since the 1970s, some film critics have tried to restore Matarazzo's reputation as a special filmmaker with his own style. Credits include "Kiki" (1934), "Il marchese di Ruvolito" (1939), "Notte di fortuna" (1941), "Tormento" (1950), "I figli di nessuno" (1951), "La nave delle donne maledette" (1953), "Giuseppe Verdi" (1953), "L'angelo bianco" (1955), "La risaia" (1956/with Folco Lulli and Elsa Martinelli), "L'ultima violenza" (1957), "Cerasella" (1959), "Adultero lui, adultera lei" (1963) and "Amore mio" (1964). He died, only 56 years old, in a roman clinic of a heart attack.
Motion picture director, producer and screenwriter.
Began as a film critic before joining the Italian film company Cines as a script doctor. Producer Giuseppe Amato soon gave him the opportunity to direct. After the great success of his first film, the comedy "Treno popolare" (1933), he stayed in this genre for the next years, turning to melodrama in the late 1930s. With "Catene" (1949) he became one of the most successful directors in Italy in the 50s, often working with the "Catene" stars Amedeo Nazzari and Yvonne Sanson. Audience loved his melodramas, critics, however, have tended to disparage his work and dismiss it as 'saccharine neorealism.' Towards the end of the decade, his success declined more and more, but since the 1970s, some film critics have tried to restore Matarazzo's reputation as a special filmmaker with his own style. Credits include "Kiki" (1934), "Il marchese di Ruvolito" (1939), "Notte di fortuna" (1941), "Tormento" (1950), "I figli di nessuno" (1951), "La nave delle donne maledette" (1953), "Giuseppe Verdi" (1953), "L'angelo bianco" (1955), "La risaia" (1956/with Folco Lulli and Elsa Martinelli), "L'ultima violenza" (1957), "Cerasella" (1959), "Adultero lui, adultera lei" (1963) and "Amore mio" (1964). He died, only 56 years old, in a roman clinic of a heart attack.
Began as a film critic before joining the Italian film company Cines as a script doctor. Producer Giuseppe Amato soon gave him the opportunity to direct. After the great success of his first film, the comedy "Treno popolare" (1933), he stayed in this genre for the next years, turning to melodrama in the late 1930s. With "Catene" (1949) he became one of the most successful directors in Italy in the 50s, often working with the "Catene" stars Amedeo Nazzari and Yvonne Sanson. Audience loved his melodramas, critics, however, have tended to disparage his work and dismiss it as 'saccharine neorealism.' Towards the end of the decade, his success declined more and more, but since the 1970s, some film critics have tried to restore Matarazzo's reputation as a special filmmaker with his own style. Credits include "Kiki" (1934), "Il marchese di Ruvolito" (1939), "Notte di fortuna" (1941), "Tormento" (1950), "I figli di nessuno" (1951), "La nave delle donne maledette" (1953), "Giuseppe Verdi" (1953), "L'angelo bianco" (1955), "La risaia" (1956/with Folco Lulli and Elsa Martinelli), "L'ultima violenza" (1957), "Cerasella" (1959), "Adultero lui, adultera lei" (1963) and "Amore mio" (1964). He died, only 56 years old, in a roman clinic of a heart attack.
Bio by: Fritz Tauber
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