He is one of the greatest directors of the Italian cinema working from the Sixties, revalued in Italy after the cinephile love the French felt for him. At first he was considered by the Italian critics just a great artisan. He was born in Trevico, in the Avellino province on May 10th, 1931. The family soon moved to Rome and Ettore studied at Pilo Alberrelli High School. When he was a teenager he started drawing cartoons for the humorous magazine Marc’Aurelio and also collaborated with Il travaso delle idee (“The transfer of ideas”). He enrolled at the Law Faculty of Rome University. His first film as a director is Se permettete parliamo di donne (Let's Talk About Women). After L’Arcidiavolo (The Devil in Love) in 1966, starring Vittorio Gassman, his Riusciranno i nostri eroi a ritrovare l'amico misteriosamente scomparso in Africa? (Will Our Heroes Be Able to Find Their Friend Who Has Mysteriously Disappeared in Africa?) with Alberto Sordi, Nino Manfredi and Bernard Blier, dated 1968, got a huge success with the public. Two other big successes are Il commissario Pepe (Police Commissioner Pepe) with Ugo Tognazzi and Dramma della gelosia - Tutti i particolari in cronaca (The Pizza Triangle) with Mastroianni, Giannini and Vitti. C'eravamo tanto amati (We All Loved Each Other So Much), in 1974, had a great critical success too, even though in the future Scola made other great and artistically superior movies; it's a movie that goes over three decades of Italian history thanks to three friends played by Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi, and Stefano Satta Flores. Then he shot his two very different and extremely brave masterpieces. The first one is Brutti sporchi e cattivi (Down and Dirty) in 1976, where Nino Manfredi is transfigured into a vile and monstrous character. The year after he made Una giornata particolare (A Special Day), which narrates the drama during the Nazi period of a communist homosexual and a housewife oppressed by her fascist husband. Mastroianni and the film are nominated for the Oscars ad the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Two very beautiful coral movies were directed by Scola in the Eighties: La Terrazza (The terrace) and La famiglia (The Family). In 1983 he made another beautiful risky film where there is only music, without any dialogue: Le Bal (“The ball”). Between 1988 and 1990 he worked with Massimo Troisi in three films: Splendor, Che ora è? (What time is it?) and Il viaggio di capitan Fracassa (Captain Fracassa’s Journey). In 1995 he directed Alberto Sordi, who returns to a great performance under the lines, in Romanzo di un Giovane Povero (“A poor young man novel”). Among the latest films made we remember La cena (The Dinner) and Concorrenza sleale (Unfair Competition). He died on January 19, 2016 at the Rome Polyclinic Hospital.
