Lorenza Mazzetti facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lorenza Mazzetti
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Lorenza Mazzetti in Perugia, 2014
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| Born | 26 July 1927 |
| Died | 4 January 2020 (aged 92) |
| Occupation | Film director, novelist, photographer, painter |
Lorenza Mazzetti (born July 26, 1927 – died January 4, 2020) was a talented Italian film director, writer, photographer, and painter. She was known for her unique stories and her work in the Free Cinema movement.
Contents
Early Life and Challenges
Lorenza Mazzetti was born in Florence, Italy. Sadly, her mother passed away shortly after Lorenza and her twin sister Paola were born. Their father, Corrado Mazzetti, placed them with a nurse for their first three years. Later, a family friend, Ugo Giannattasio, helped care for them.
The sisters eventually moved to a farm in Rignano sull'Arno to live with their aunt Cesarina (Nina) Mazzetti and her husband Robert Einstein. Robert was a cousin of the famous scientist Albert Einstein. Lorenza and Paola became part of their loving family and had a happy childhood there.
During World War II, their farm was taken over by German soldiers. As the war continued, a terrible event happened. On August 3, 1944, German officers returned to the farm and, not finding Robert, they tragically killed his family. This sad event is known as the Strage di Rignano. Lorenza and Paola survived because their last name wasn't Einstein. However, this terrible loss deeply affected their lives forever. After the tragedy, the farm was set on fire. Robert, who had hidden, died later in 1945. Lorenza and Paola were then cared for by a guardian.
London Life and Early Films
After finishing high school, Lorenza moved to London. She wanted to forget the painful memories of the war. While there, she learned that their guardian had wasted all their money, leaving her and Paola penniless. To stay in London, Lorenza worked as a waitress.
Even though she struggled to pay rent, she was accepted into the Slade School of Fine Art. This happened because the director, William Coldstream, was impressed by her determination.
Between 1952 and 1953, Lorenza made her first film, K. This film was inspired by Franz Kafka's story Metamorphosis. It explored themes of feeling like an outsider. K is seen as an early example of the Free Cinema movement. This movement was officially started in 1956 by Lorenza and other filmmakers like Lindsay Anderson and Tony Richardson.
To get her film developed, Lorenza faced many challenges. Luckily, William Coldstream believed in her talent. He arranged a special showing of K at the Slade School. Denis Forman, director of the British Film Institute, saw the film. He was so impressed that he offered Lorenza a chance to make another film without any trouble. This led to her next film, Together.
Together featured sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi and painter Michael Andrews as two characters who couldn't hear or speak. The film was made with the same crew as K. Together won an award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1956.
In 2014, Lorenza wrote a book called Diario Londinese (London Diaries in English). It shared her exciting adventures during her time in London.
Return to Italy and The Sky Falls
After attending the Cannes Film Festival, Lorenza returned to Italy to visit her twin sister, who had a new baby. However, being back in Italy brought back painful memories of her adopted family's murder. She became very sad and stayed longer than planned.
After a long time, and with the help of a therapist, she began to remember the happy parts of her childhood. This painful but important process led her to start writing her book, Il cielo cade (The Sky Falls).
Many publishers turned down her book at first. But when she sent it to Cesare Zavattini, he loved it! He shared it with Attilio Bertolucci, a publisher who called it a "little masterpiece." In 1962, Il cielo cade won the top prize at the Premio Viareggio, a famous Italian literary award.
Il cielo cade is told from a child's point of view. It describes the war through the eyes of a child who loves Jesus, the Duce (Mussolini), and her adoptive uncle. It's a story that is both sad and funny. Lorenza changed the names of the characters to protect the Einstein family's privacy. Famous director Federico Fellini compared the novel to a classic Italian children's book.
Later, the book was republished by Elvira Sellerio. Lorenza told the publisher that the book was actually her own life story. Because of this, Elvira Sellerio asked her to dedicate the book to the Einstein family and include a photo of Nina and Robert Einstein. Today, Il cielo cade is considered a classic of modern Italian literature. In 2000, it was made into a film starring Isabella Rossellini. The film also won an award at the Giffoni Film Festival.
Lorenza's next novel, Con rabbia (Rage), was published in 1963. It told the story of a character named Penny who hated not only the Germans but also people who were hypocritical.
Life in Rome and Puppet Theatre
In the 1960s, Lorenza met Bruno Grieco, a journalist and writer. Their apartment in Rome became a popular meeting place for many artists and thinkers. People from the Free Cinema movement, like Lindsay Anderson, visited often. Other famous guests included writers and actors.
Lorenza was asked to direct a short film about children for a larger movie project. She accepted, but after filming, she decided to leave the world of cinema. She felt that "cinema verita'" (a style of documentary filmmaking) was not what she wanted to do.
Because of her awards and growing fame, Lorenza was offered a job writing a weekly column for Vie Nuove magazine. In her column, she invited readers to share their dreams. She then interpreted these dreams with a dream expert. This was a new idea, bringing the concept of the subconscious to everyday people. However, this project was seen as too risky by the political party that ran the magazine. This meant Lorenza could not work with the Italian broadcasting station Rai, even though she had started a small collaboration there.
Her articles from Vie Nuove were later collected in a book called Il lato oscuro. L’inconscio degli italiani (The Dark Side. The Unconscious of Italians).
In the same year, 1969, her novel Uccidi il padre e la madre (Kill Your Mother and Father) was released. It was a story about a young revolutionary woman who felt stuck.
Later, Lorenza started a "Puppet Theatre" for children in Rome. She brought famous English puppets, Pulcinella and Punch and Judy, to Italy. In 1974, Lorenza met Luigi Galletti, a kind and funny doctor. They later married. Luigi joined her in the puppet theatre, performing voices for characters like the king, the giant, and the wolf.
Lorenza also worked on interpreting children's dreams and turning them into plays for schools. This project was supported by the director of the "Teatro di Roma." The results of these workshops were published in a book in 1975 called Il teatro dell’io: l’onirodramma. I bambini drammatizzano a scuola i loro sogni (The Theatre of the Self: The Onirodrama. Children Dramatize Their Dreams at School).
Paintings and Legacy
Later in her life, Lorenza became a painter. She had two important exhibitions. One was called "The Album di famiglia" (Family Album), which featured 80 paintings illustrating events from her novel Il Cielo cade. The other was "A proposito del Free Cinema" (About Free Cinema), which showed portraits of important people from English cinema in the 1950s and 60s. These exhibitions were shown in many cities, including Rome, Florence, and Dresden.
Her first film, K, which she had kept safe, was finally restored in 2010. It was transferred to DVD and shared with the public. It has been shown in London, Venice, Florence, and Rome.
Lorenza's books can be seen as continuing the story of Il cielo cade. For example, Diario Londinese is like a prequel, describing the early days of the Free Cinema movement. Lorenza believed that her past experiences, especially the difficult ones, influenced all her work and successes.
One of Lorenza Mazzetti's main goals was to show her film Il cielo cade in schools. She wanted to talk with young people about the tragedy of the Einstein family. She hoped to keep the memory of the Holocaust alive through their story, which might have been forgotten if not for her book.
Lorenza Mazzetti passed away in Rome on January 4, 2020, at the age of 92.
Filmography
- K (1954)
- Together (1956)
- I cattivi vanno in Paradiso (1959)
- Latin Lovers (1961)
- Mysteries of Rome (1966)
Books
- Il cielo cade (The Sky Falls) (1962)
- Con rabbia (With Rage) (1963)
- Uccidi il padre e la madre (Kill Your Mother and Father) (1969)
- Il lato oscuro (The Dark Side) (1969)
- Il teatro dell'io: l'onirodramma. I bambini drammatizzano a scuola i loro sogni (The Theatre of the Self: The Onirodrama. Children Dramatize Their Dreams at School) (1975)
- Diario londinese (London Diaries) (2014)
Images for kids
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Robot for kids
See also
In Spanish: Lorenza Mazzetti para niños
