Valerio Zurlini

Valerio Zurlini 19 March 1926 26 October 1982 was an Italian stage and film director and screenwriter During his law studies in Rome he started working in the theatre In 1943 he joined the Italian resistance Zurlini became a member of the Italian Communist Party He filmed short documentaries in the immediate postwar period before he directed his first feature film in 1954 The Girls of San Frediano In 1958 Zurlini won the Nastro dArgento together with Leonardo Benvenuti Piero De Bernardi and Alberto Lattuada for Best Script for Lattuadas Guendalina Zurlini made his name as a director with his second feature film Violent Summer 1959 starring Eleonora Rossi Drago and Jean Louis Trintignant In 1961 Zurlini filmed Girl with a Suitcase starring Claudia Cardinale who became a film star in Italy and Jacques Perrin who would become Zurlinis favorite actor His 1962 film Family Diary earned Zurlini the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival it tied with Tarkovsky s Ivans Childhood Both The Girls of San Frediano and Family Diary were based on Vasco Pratolini s work