Giovanni Arpino (27 January 1927 – 10 December 1987) was an Italian writer and
journalist
A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
Province of Cuneo
Cuneo ( Italian), or Coni ( Piedmontese), is a province in the southwest of the Piedmont region of Italy. To the west it borders on the French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (departments of Alpes-Maritimes, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence and H ...
. Here he married Caterina Brero before moving to
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 ...
, where he would remain for the rest of his life.
He graduated in 1951 with a thesis on the
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...
n poet Sergei Yesenin and the following year made his literary debut with the novel ''Sei stato felice, Giovanni'', published by
Einaudi Einaudi is an Italian surname. Notable people with the surname include:
*Luigi Einaudi (1874–1961), Italian politician
*Mario Einaudi (1905–1994), Italian political scientist, son of Luigi
*Giulio Einaudi (1912–1999), Italian publisher, son o ...
.
He took up sports journalism, writing for the daily papers ''
La Stampa
''La Stampa'' (meaning ''The Press'' in English) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin, Italy. It is distributed in Italy and other European nations. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy.
History and profile
The paper was fou ...
'' and '' Il Giornale''; together with Gianni Brera at the '' La Gazzetta dello Sport'' he brought a new literary quality to Italian writing on sport. His most important work in this line was the 1977 football novel ''Azzurro tenebra''. In Italy he got to know the Argentinian writer and fellow sports enthusiast
Osvaldo Soriano
Osvaldo Soriano (January 6, 1943 – January 29, 1997) was an Argentine journalist and writer.Osvaldo Soriano at the .
Arpino also wrote plays, short stories, epigrams and stories for children.
He won the Strega Prize in 1964 with ''L'ombra delle colline'', the Premio Campiello of 1972 with ''Randagio è l'eroe'' and the 1980 SuperCampiello with ''Il fratello italiano''. His novels are characterised by a dry and ironic style.
His novel ''Un delitto d'onore'' became
Pietro Germi
Pietro Germi (; 14 September 1914 – 5 December 1974) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and actor, noted for his development of the neorealist and commedia all'Italiana genres.
His 1961 film '' Divorce Italian Style'' earned him a ...
Al Pacino
Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...
an
Academy Award for Best Actor
The Academy Award for Best Actor is an award presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance in a leading role in a film released that year. The ...
.
Arpino died in Turin in 1987. His links to his childhood town of Bra have been maintained by the establishment of a multifunctional cultural centre and of a prize for children's literature.
Works
*''Sei stato felice, Giovanni'' (1952)
*''Gli anni del giudizio'' (1958)
*''La suora giovane'' (1959)
*'' Un delitto d'onore'' (1960)
*''Una nuvola d'ira'' (1962)
*''L'ombra delle colline'' (1962)
*''Un'anima persa'' (1966)
*''La babbuina'' (1967)
*''Il buio e il miele'' (1969) translated as ''Scent of a Woman'' (2012)
*''Randagio è l'eroe'' (1972)
*''Racconti di vent’anni'' (1974)
*''L'assalto al treno ed altre storie'' (1974)
*''Rafé e Micropiede'' (1974)
*''Domingo il favoloso'' (1975)
*''Il primo quarto di luna'' (1976)
*''Azzurro tenebra'' (1977)
*''Il fratello italiano'' (1980)
*''Le mille e una Italia'' (1980)
*''Un gran mare di gente'' (1981)
*''Bocce ferme'' (1982)
*''La sposa segreta'' (1983)
*''Il contadino Genè'' (1985)
*'' Passo d'addio'' (1986)
*''La trappola amorosa'' (postumo, 1988)
In 2005 Mondadori published a volume of selected works edited by the literary critic Giorgio Bàrberi Squarotti.
Boccaccio '70
''Boccaccio '70'' is a 1962 comedy anthology film directed by Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Mario Monicelli and Luchino Visconti from an idea by Cesare Zavattini. It consists of four episodes, each by one of the directors, all about a diff ...
'' taken from Italo Calvino’s ''L'avventura di due sposi'' and directed by Mario Monicelli (1962), Arpino worked on the
screenplay
''ScreenPlay'' is a television drama anthology series broadcast on BBC2 between 9 July 1986 and 27 October 1993.
Background
After single-play anthology series went off the air, the BBC introduced several showcases for made-for-television, f ...
Agostina Belli
Agostina Belli (born 13 April 1949) is an Italian film actress. She has appeared in more than 50 films since 1968.
Life and career
Born in Milan as Agostina Maria Magnoni, Belli made her debut in 1968 with a minor part in '' Bandits in Milan'' ...
as Sara. This film in turn was remade in 1992 as '' Scent of a Woman'' (1992).
* In 1977 Dino Risi's film '' Anima persa'', with Vittorio Gassman as Fabio Stolz and Catherine Deneuve as Sofia Stolz, was freely adapted from Arpino's novel of the same name.
* In a 1991 documentary for the French television series ''Un livre un jour'' Arpino appeared as himself.
References
:''This article was based originally on its counterpart in the Italian Wikipedia, '' :it:Giovanni Arpino'', which is licensed under the
GFDL
The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or simply GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers th ...
.''
Further reading
*Mariano D’Amora ‘Giovanni Arpino’ in ''Encyclopedia of Italian literary studies'', ed. by Gaetana Marrone and others, 2 vols (New York; London: Routledge, 2007) II, 95–97.