Pietro Germi

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Pietro Germi 14 September 1914 Genoa 5 December 1974 was an Italian actor screenwriter and director Germi was born in Genoa Liguria to a lowermiddle class family He was a messenger and briefly attended nautical school before deciding on a career in acting He studied acting and directing at Romes Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia During his time in school Germi supported himself by working as an extra bit actor assistant director and on occasion writer Germi made his directorial debut in 1945 with the film Il testimone His early work this film included were very much in the Italian Neorealist style many were social dramas that dealt with contemporary issues pertaining to people of Sicilian heritage Through the years Germi shifted away from social drama towards satirical comedies but retained his loved element of the Sicilian people In the 1960s Germi received worldwide success with the films Divorce Italian Style Seduced and Abandoned and Signore e Signori The latter is better known in the Englishspeaking world as The Birds the Bees and the Italians He was nominated for Academy Awards in both directing and writing for Divorce Italian Style and subsequently won in the writing category He also won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for Signore e signori Germi collaborated on the scripts for all the films he directed and appeared as an actor in a few of them He died in Rome of hepatitis on 5 December 1974