Born in Ferrara, Italy, on 29 September 1912. After graduating from the University of Bologna in 1935 with a degree on Economics and Commerce, he experimented with 16mm films, wrote film scripts, and worked for a bank. He went to Rame in 1939 and there he contributed articles to Cinema, the official film magazine of the Fascist Parry. He soon decided to pursue cinema seriously in the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, the famous Italian film school. In 1950, at 38, he directed his first feature film, Cronoca di un amore. In 1960 he scored his first international triumph, L'avenrura, which marked the coming of maturity of his unique aesthetic and of his theme and his camera style. His greatest achievement was in those films of the decade between Le amiche and ll deserra rosso in which his lucid pessimism found assured dramatic and visual expression. In a body of work at most devoid of light-heartedness and humour, he has shown himself to be a sensitive and profound moralist.