Background
Pasquale Festa Campanile was born on July 28, 1927, in Melfi, Puglia, Italy. He was the son of Raffaele and Olga Pappadà.
Golden Palm Award
director journalist screenwriter writer
Pasquale Festa Campanile was born on July 28, 1927, in Melfi, Puglia, Italy. He was the son of Raffaele and Olga Pappadà.
Festa Campanile received a degree in law when he moved to Rome.
Festa Campanile started his career as a writer and literary critic in Rome.
His work features a willingness to confront disturbing and, at times, titillating subjects. He was the coauthor of the Visconti-directed screenplay for Rocco e i suoi fratelli (known in English as Rocco and His Brothers), a work praised by reviewer Elaine Mancini for its rich cultural base and well-developed characters. Mancini notes that “the film earned praise throughout the world,” but that some observers “abhorred the portrayal of violence and considered the film morally questionable.”
Other screenplays written by Festa Campanile have been produced to positive reviews. II gattopardo (“The Leopard”), a film adaptation of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel about the survival of an aristocratic family through a revolution, was well-received by critics in both Italy and France. Adulterio all'Italiana (“Adultery Italian Style”), a film co-written and directed by Festa Campanile, is a shocking exploration of sexuality that earned Festa Campanile and long-time collaborator Massimo Franciosa reputations as provocateurs.
Festa Campanile wrote his first novel, La nonna Sabella (“Grandma Sabella”), in 1957. The novel quickly became a critical success and was made into a film titled Poveri ma belli (“Beautiful but Poor”). Despite this success, Festa Campanile turned primarily to film directing and film scriptwriting; he would not publish another novel until 1977, when he wrote II ladrone (“The Thief”).
La ragazza di Trieste (“The Girl from Trieste”), a novel written by Festa Campanile and published in 1982, is a Lolita-style story about the love between a young woman and an older man.
Festa Campanile directed some fifty Italian-language films and wrote or coauthored many of the screenplays for those films. During his career, he also worked alongside noted director Luchino Visconti; for this reason, several of his films have been subtitled for viewing by English-speaking audiences. In addition, several of Festa Campanile’s other writing works have been translated into English.
Festa Campanile was married three times. He married Anna Salvatore, but they divorced in 1962. Later he had relationships with the women named Maria Grazia Spina, Catherine Spaak and Lilli Carati. Finally, he married Rosalba Mazzamuto. He had a son.