Giovanni Pastrone, also known by his artistic name Piero Fosco (13 September 1883 – 27 June 1959), was an Italian film pioneer, director,

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

and

technician A technician is a worker in a field of technology who is proficient in the relevant skill and technique, with a relatively practical understanding of the theoretical principles. Specialisation The term technician covers many different special ...

. Pastrone was born in Montechiaro d'Asti. He worked during the era of the

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

and influenced many important directors in the international cinema with '' Cabiria'', such as David Wark Griffith in ''

The Birth of a Nation ''The Birth of a Nation'' is a 1915 American Silent film, silent Epic film, epic Drama (film and television), drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and ...

'' (1915) and ''

Intolerance Intolerance may refer to: * Hypersensitivity or intolerance, undesirable reactions produced by the immune system * ''Intolerance'' (film), a 1916 film by D. W. Griffith * ''Intolerance'' (album), the first solo album from Grant Hart, formerly ...

'' (1916).

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...

believes that Pastrone's work in Cabiria can be considered as the invention of the epic movie and he deserves credit for many of the innovations often attributed to D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille. Among those was the extensive use of a moving camera, thus freeing the feature-length narrative film from "static gaze". He died in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) 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 from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

on 27 June 1959.

Complete filmography

Directing

* '' La glu'' (1908) * '' Giordano Bruno eroe di Valmy'' (1908) * ''

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in Caesar's civil wa ...

'' (1909) * '' The Fall of Troy'' (1911) * '' Stronger than Sherlock Holmes'' (1913) * '' Cabiria'' (1914) * '' Tigre reale'' (1916) * '' The Fire'' (1916) * '' The Warrior'' (1916) * '' La guerra ed il sogno di Momi'' (1917) * '' Maciste the Athlete'' (1918) * '' Hedda Gabler'' (1920) * '' Povere bimbe'' (1923)

Acting

* ''

'' (1909)

References

External links

*
Giovanni Pastrone in ''Epdlp''
(Spanish) 1883 births 1959 deaths Italian male actors Italian film directors 20th-century Italian screenwriters Italian male screenwriters Film people from Turin People from Montechiaro d'Asti Male actors from Turin 20th-century Italian male writers {{screen-writer-stub