Guido Aristarco (7 October 1918 – 11 September 1996) was an Italian film critic and author.

Biography

Born in

Fossacesia Fossacesia is a city in the province of Chieti in the Abruzzo region of Italy. The town is located on a small hill on the left of the Sangro River's mouth, about from the Adriatic Sea The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Ita ...

Chieti Chieti (, ; , nap, label= Abruzzese, Chjïétë, ; gr, Θεάτη, Theátē; lat, Theate, ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Central Italy, east by northeast of Rome. It is the capital of the province of Chieti in the Abruzzo region. ...

, at very young age Aristarco debuted as a film critic for the newspapers '' La Gazzetta di Mantova'' and ''Il Corriere Padano'' and then for the magazine ''Cinema''. A dean of the Marxist film criticism, influenced by the thought of

Antonio Gramsci Antonio Francesco Gramsci ( , , ; 22 January 1891 – 27 April 1937) was an Italian Marxist philosopher, journalist, linguist, writer, and politician. He wrote on philosophy, political theory, sociology, history, and linguistics. He was a ...

and

György Lukács György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and ae ...

, for whom he wrote the preface of ''The Destruction of Reason'', in 1952 he founded and edited (until his death) the film magazine ''

Cinema Nuovo ''Cinema Nuovo'' was a left-leaning Italian film magazine existed between 1952 and 1996. It was headquartered in Milan, Italy. History and profile ''Cinema Nuovo'' was established by film critic Guido Aristarco in 1952. The first issue was publ ...

''. He was also the first university professor of cinema in Italy, first in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

and later in Rome. Aristarco was a jury member of the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

three times, in 1948, 1963, and 1985.

References

External links

* 1918 births 1996 deaths Italian essayists Italian male non-fiction writers Italian film critics 20th-century Italian people People from Fossacesia Male essayists Italian magazine founders Italian magazine editors 20th-century essayists {{Italy-writer-stub