Pietro Germi: film series

 special event
 at

> 209 West Houston Street
   New York, NY 10014

The son of a tailor and a manual worker, Pietro Germi was born in Genoa in 1914. He moved to Rome in order to attend the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, where he initially began an acting course but later switched to direction, under the guidance of Alessandro Blasetti.
A versatile director, he tackled a variety of genres, consistently delivering films of quality. He was also an actor and often appeared in the films he himself directed.
His first work was "The Testimony” (1946). He came to public notice again three years later with "In the Name of the Law” (1949), a western-style film set amongst the Sicilian Mafia, and "The Road to Hope” (1950), the story of a group of sulphur miners who emigrate to France. After achieving success with a pair of measured melodramas, set against working class ("The Railroad Man", 1956) and petit bourgeois backgrounds ("A Man of Straw", 1958), Germi then turned his attention to comedy, scoring immediate success with "Divorce Italian Style" (1961). The film won an Oscar for best screenplay and paved the way for an entirely new genre. This stinging, farcical story offered a bitter condemnation of the concept of the ‘crime of passion' and brought the director to international renown, with no small help from Marcello Mastroianni's sensational performance. His next film, "Seduced and Abandoned” (1964) presented similar themes and characters, but was more grotesque in tone and had a more restless narrative line. The pointed satire and stringent moralising of these films came to perfect fruition in "The Birds, the Bees and the Italians” (1965). In this film the director trains his gaze on the respectable Venetian hinterland, where the veneer of obeisance to Catholic rectitude hides a seething mire of unfathomable vice. After the little known "Too Much for One Man " (1967), Germi made the highly regarded, "Alfredo, Alfredo" (1972), by Vitaliano Brancati. While working on "My Friends” in 1974, Germi died suddenly in Rome. The project was completed, very successfully, by Mario Monicelli. A somewhat undervalued film artist, Germi was a narrator of impeccably wrought stories, among the best of his time.

> Fri/Sat/Sun, November 2/3/4
SEDOTTA E ABBANDONATA
[SEDUCED AND ABANDONED] (1964, 122 min)

> Monday, November 5
IL CAMMINO DELLA SPERANZA [THE WAY OF HOPE] (1950, 107 min)
IL BRIGANTE DI TACCA DEL LUPO (1952, 97 min)

> Tuesday, November 6
IL FERROVIERE [THE RAILROAD MAN] (1955, 114 min)
L'UOMO DI PAGLIA [THE STRAW MAN] (1958, 120 min)

> Wednesday, November 7
UN MALEDETTO IMBROGLIO [THE FACTS OF MURDER] (1959, 111 min)
ALFREDO, ALFREDO (1972, 106 min)
 
> Thursday, November 8
IN NOME DELLA LEGGE [IN THE NAME OF THE LAW] (1949, 99 min)

> November 9-15 (One week - additional late show November 16-22):
DIVORZIO ALL'ITALIANA [DIVORCE, ITALIAN STYLE] (1962, 118 min)
> Also, November 16-22

thanks to

and to Amelia Carpenito Antonucci, Peter Becker, Giuseppe Chiaravalle, Bruce Goldstein, Kim Hendrickson, Federico Spoletti.