Ercole Patti (16 February 1903 – 15 November 1976) was an Italian writer,
dramatist
A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays.
Etymology
The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...
,
screenwriter
A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based.
...
and journalist.
Born in
Catania
Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...
into an upper-middle-class family, the nephew of author Giuseppe Villaroel, Patti started working as a journalist at very young age, before graduating in law in 1925.
After practicing for a year in his father's firm, he decided to move to Rome where earning a living from journalism.
There, after some sporadic collaborations, he was employed in the newspaper ''
Gazzetta del Popolo
''Gazzetta del Popolo'' was an Italian daily newspaper founded in Turin, in northern Italy, on 16 June 1848. It ceased publication on 31 December 1983 after 135 years of operation. Italian novelist Alberto Moravia
Alberto Moravia ( , ; born Al ...
'', where he was a foreign correspondent in China, India and Japan, among other places.
He got notoriety as a novelist in 1940, with ''Quartieri alti'', a satirical portrait of Roman high classes.
His novels are mainly set in Rome or in a sensual Sicily, which was, according to literary critic
Carlo Bo
Carlo Bo (25 January 1911 – 21 July 2001) was an Italian poet, literary critic, distinghuished humanist, a professor and Life senator of Italy (from 1984).
Biography
Bo was born on January 25, 1911, in Sestri Levante, Italy.
From 1929 to 1 ...
, a sort of philosophical ideal for Patti.
Patti was active as a screenwriter since 1935, and a number of his novels were adapted into films. In addition to novels Patti published collections of short stories and two autobiographical works.
Selected filmography
* ''
But It's Nothing Serious
''But It's Nothing Serious'' (Italian: ''Ma non è una cosa seria'') is a 1936 Italian " white-telephones" romantic comedy film directed by Mario Camerini and starring Vittorio De Sica, Elisa Cegani and Assia Noris.Cardullo p.268 It is based on a ...
'' (1936)
* ''
A Woman Has Fallen
''A Woman Has Fallen'' (Italian: ''È caduta una donna'') is a 1941 Italian drama film directed by Alfredo Guarini and starring Isa Miranda, Rossano Brazzi, and Claudio Gora.
The film's sets were designed by the art directors Gustav Abel, Paolo ...
'' (1941)
* ''
That Splendid November
''That Splendid November'' (Italian: ''Un bellissimo novembre'') is a 1969 Italian film directed by Mauro Bolognini. It stars actors Gabriele Ferzetti and Gina Lollobrigida. It is based on a novel with the same name written by Ercole Patti.
Sum ...
'' (1969)
* ''
La cugina'' (1974)
References
Further reading
* Enzo Lauretta. ''Invito alla lettura di Ercole Patti''. Mursia, 1975.
* Giovanni Scalia. ''I romanzi di Ercole Patti: saggi di psicocritica''. Bonanno, 1982.
* Sarah Zappulla Muscarà. ''Ercole Patti''. G. Maimone, 1989. .
* Pietro Frassica. ''Ercole Patti e altro Novecento siciliano''. Interlinea Ed., 2004. .
* Sebastiano Gesù, Laura Maccarrone. ''Ercole Patti: un letterato al cinema''. Maimone, 2004. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Patti, Ercole
1903 births
Writers from Catania
1976 deaths
Journalists from Catania
Italian male journalists
Italian dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Italian screenwriters
Italian male screenwriters
20th-century Italian novelists
20th-century Italian male writers
20th-century Italian dramatists and playwrights
Italian male novelists
Italian male dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Italian journalists