Massimo Franciosa

Italian novelist, screenwriter, and director Massimo Franciosa was well-known for collaborating with Pasquale Festa Campanile and famed comedy director Dino Risi during the 1950s. Franciosa's most popular works from this era were Poor but Beautiful (1956) and its sequel, Beautiful but Poor (1957), as well as Venice, the Moon and You (1958). He was also responsible for penning several classic screenplays for Luchino Visconti, including Rocco E I Suoi Fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers) (1960) and Il Gattopardo (The Leopard) (1963). In 1963, he won an Oscar nomination for the screenplay for Nanni Loy's Four Days of Naples. All told, Franciosa wrote or co-wrote close to 70 screenplays. He made his bow as a director in the comedy Extracongiugale (1965). Prior to that, he gained helming experience co-directing features with Festa Campanile, beginning with Un Tenativo Sentimentale (1963). Franciosa directed his last film in 1968. He continued writing screenplays through the '70s, but by the mid-'80s had changed his focus to penning novels and writing for television. - Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide