Bernardino Zapponi

Bernardino Zapponi, born September 4, 1927 in Rome and died February 11, 2000, was an Italian screenwriter. A writer and scriptwriter for theater, radio, and film, he began his career in the 1950s on the editorial staff of the humorous weekly Marc'Aurelio, alongside Ettore Scola, Steno, Ruggero M... More

Bernardino Zapponi, born September 4, 1927 in Rome and died February 11, 2000, was an Italian screenwriter. A writer and scriptwriter for theater, radio, and film, he began his career in the 1950s on the editorial staff of the humorous weekly Marc'Aurelio, alongside Ettore Scola, Steno, Ruggero Maccari, and others. From the early 1950s, he wrote numerous scripts for radio programs, notably for variety shows, on RAI's Via Asiago in Rome. In 1958, he founded the magazine Il delatore. For television, he collaborated with Guglielmo Zucconi and Italo Terzoli on the program Controcanale, hosted by Corrado Mantoni with Abbe Lane and Xavier Cugat. In 1967, he published Gobal, a collection of fantastic and gothic short stories set in a contemporary setting, introduced by a preface by Goffredo Parise. The collection caught the attention of Federico Fellini, who invited him to collaborate on the screenplay for the Toby Dammit episode in Extraordinary Stories. Together, Fellini and Zapponi wrote six more films, the last of which was City of Women. The writer recounts his years of work and friendship with the director in the book Il mio Fellini. He also wrote around ten films for Dino Risi, from The Priest's Wife to Giovani e belli, as well as Shivers of Anguish for Dario Argento. He also adapted William Douglas-Home and Marc-Gilbert Sauvajon's play, Le Canard à l'orange, for the big screen, directed by Luciano Salce. He co-wrote the screenplay for Mario Monicelli's The Marquis of Laughter. He also wrote the screenplays for Paprika and Così fan tutte by Tinto Brass. He received the Flaiano Screenplay Award for his lifetime achievement. On December 20, 1997, he received the Honorary Award for his Lifetime Achievement at the Museo Internazionale del Cinema e dello Spectacolo.