Alberto Lattuada

Former writer and illustrator for anti-Fascist journals who began designing sets for films in the early 1930s and graduated to directing in 1942. Lattuada found his stride with the emergence of Italian neorealism, earning critical praise for "The Bandit" (1946) and--in collaboration with Federico Fellini--"Variety Lights" (1950). Lattuada's achievements were subsequently eclipsed by those of contemporaries such as Fellini and Antonioni, though he proved adept in a wide range of genres and achieved commercial success with films like "Anna" (1951), starring Silvana Mangano. Lattuada was a co-founder, in 1940, of the first Italian film archive, Milan's Cineteca Italiana. Son of composer Felice (1882-1962), who scored several of his films, and husband of actress Carla Del Poggio.