Mario Nuzzolese (10 December 1915 – 21 October 2008), was an Italian Lieutenant Colonel, teacher, journalist and film critic. He led the Italian cinema and entertainment culture. He contributed to the management and development of the National AGIS Association and managed the Regional Delegation for more than 40 years.

Military career

In 1942 he was sent with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel to defend the Italian trenches during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in the Africa Campaign on the

El Alamein El Alamein ( ar, العلمين, translit=al-ʿAlamayn, lit=the two flags, ) is a town in the northern Matrouh Governorate of Egypt. Located on the Arab's Gulf, Mediterranean Sea, it lies west of Alexandria and northwest of Cairo. , it had ...

front, recruited by the

Military Intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

commanded by the Major Paolo Caccia Dominioni. During a battle he had a lucky landing in the Sahara Desert with his Fiat Cicogna that caused severe and irreversible vertebral injuries. For the strategy, courage and seriousness he was awarded a Bronze Medal of Military Valor.

Cinema

In 1945 he started projecting silent movies in a little room of the School Balilla in Bari, allowing his students to explore the educational power of videos with his first censures. During the early 1950s, in

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Ital ...

, Nuzzolese directed the first B/W documentary on the Basilica di San Nicola of Bari, actually, property of the historical RAI Archives. He devoted his life to the family and the cinema culture, ideated and founded Cinemas ABC (1976) one of the first essay cinemas in Europe inaugurated by Minister Adolfo Sarti with the movie "Quanto è bello lu murire acciso" of Ennio Lorenzini. The Centre of Culture liked too much also to the Italian Film Director Carlo Lizzani, that permitted to print 11 movies of the Venice Film Festival. It was reopened on 19 January 2010, after restoration and conservation interventions, with an honour plate to him dedicated. He participated several times in the Annual

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

, Festival de Cannes and

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 h ...

. He founded associations to improve Italian Cinemas traditions and the target of its supporters such as Agiscuola and FICE. In 1980 he was awarded by the former President of the Council of Ministers,

Francesco Cossiga Francesco Maurizio Cossiga (; sc, Frantziscu Maurìtziu Còssiga, ; 1928 – 2010)
. was an Italian pol ...

, with the title of Commendatore della Repubblica and different times by the AGIS Association with several medals of honours for his loyalty, fidelity and positive results. He collected original 8mm films, VHS, movies billboards and specialized magazines creating the invaluable AGIS's collection.

Journalism

He wrote several articles and film criticisms for the newspapers

Corriere della Sera The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015. First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of I ...

, Repubblica and Giornale dello Spettacolo; and socially divulged the essay cinema culture in television format.

Honours

Commander of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic * Valor militare bronze medal BAR

Bronze Medal of Military Valor

References

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nuzzolese, Mario 1915 births 2008 deaths Italian male journalists Italian soldiers People from Bari Commanders of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic Recipients of the Bronze Medal of Military Valor Italian film critics 20th-century Italian journalists 20th-century Italian male writers