Damiano Damiani

Damiano Damiani (23 July 1922 – 7 March 2013) was an Italian screenwriter, film director, actor and writer. Poet and director Pier Paolo Pasolini referred to him as "a bitter moralist hungry for old purity", while film critic Paolo Mereghetti said that his style made him "the most American of Italian directors". In 1946 Damiani became part of the so-called Group of Venice with Fernando Carcupino, Hugo Pratt and Dino Battaglia. Life and career Born in Pasiano di Pordenone, Friuli, Damiani studied at the Accademia di Brera in Milan, then made his début in 1947 with the documentary La banda d'Affari. After a few years as a screenwriter, he directed his first feature film in 1960, Il rossetto. Before his career as a big screenwriter, Damiani was first a comic cartoonist in association with the "Group of Venice". Focused on the comic Asso di Picche (1945–49) the comic featured a masked vigilante who fights crime all over the globe and is in charge of the crime stopping organization, "Band of Panthers".