Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia

Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia
Bragaglia in 1942
Born(1894-07-08)8 July 1894
Frosinone, Kingdom of Italy
Died4 January 1998(1998-01-04) (aged 103)
Rome, Italy
Occupation(s)Film director
Screenwriter
Years active1933 - 1963
RelativesAnton Giulio Bragaglia (brother)
Arturo Bragaglia (brother)

Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia (8 July 1894 – 4 January 1998) was an Italian film director whose career spanned from the 1930s to the mid-1960s. He mainly directed adventure pictures and popular comedies, including some starring Totò. His 1942 film Non ti pago! was shown as part of a retrospective on Italian comedy at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.[1]

Life and career

Bragaglia was born in Frosinone, Latium, and was a veteran of World War I.[2] Together with his brother Arturo, Bragaglia started his career as a photographer, specialized in portraits of actresses, and began to experiment avant-garde photographic techniques like "fotodinamica".[2] He later founded with his other brother Anton Giulio the Casa d'arte Bragaglia, which quickly became a popular attraction for Rome artists, and an independent theater, "Teatro Sperimentale degli Indipendenti" (1923-1936).[2] After having served as stage director in his theater, in 1930 Bragaglia was put under contract by Cines Studios as set photographer, also undertaking a short apprenticeship as an editor and assistant director, and collaborating with Alessandro Blasetti, Gennaro Righelli and Guido Brignone.[2]

After directing a few documentaries, in 1932 Bragaglia made his feature film debut with Your Money or Your Life, based on a radio play by Alessandro De Stefani.[2][3] The film was greatly inspired by René Clair,[2][3] while his lead actor Sergio Tofano basically reprised his comic strip character Signor Bonaventura.[2] Following the moderate success of the film, Bragaglia specialized in the Telefoni Bianchi genre, with a few exceptions like the realist dramas Tomb of the Angels and The Prisoner of Santa Cruz and the surreal Totò comedy Mad Animals.[2] After the war he continued his career, being active in various genres, including sword-and-sandal and swashbuckling films.[2]

Upon his 100th birthday in 1994, the Locarno Film Festival showed a film retrospective of his works. Being that he lived well into his second century Bragaglia became known as a famed storyteller who provided a wealth of information and anecdotes concerning the early days of Italian cinema. He died in Rome in 1998 after a fall which fractured his hip.[4]

Filmography

References

  1. ^ "Italian Comedy - The State of Things". labiennale.org. Archived from the original on 1 August 2010. Retrieved 1 August 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Carpiceci, Stefania (2017). "Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, l'artigiano che venne da una casa d'arte familiare e sperimentale". Ai margini del cinema italiano: soubrette e maggiorate fisiche, artigiani e autori di film minori. Pacini editore. pp. 11–29. ISBN 978-88-6995-164-0.
  3. ^ a b Poppi, Roberto (2002). "Bragaglia, Carlo Ludovico". I registi: dal 1930 ai giorni nostri. Gremese Editore. p. 70. ISBN 978-88-8440-171-7.
  4. ^ Bignardi, Irene (5 January 1998). "Ciao signor Cinema". La Repubblica. p. 35.