Giovanni Pastrone

Giovanni Pastrone (1883-1959), Italian film producer and director, noted for his pioneering historical epicCabiria. Born in Montechario d'Asti, Pastrone worked in Turin from 1905 for Carlo Rossi's film company, renamed Itala Film in 1907. He directed and produced his first two films, Agnese Visconti, set in the Renaissance, and La Caduta di Troia (The Fall of Troy), however, for a rival company in 1910. He then supervised many Itala productions, including Cabiria (1914), a film about the Punic Wars between ancient Rome and Carthage. Pastrone wrote and directed this epic, filmed on enormous studio sets and featuring the eruption of Mount Etna and other special effects, but used the pseudonym Piero Fosco as director and paid the famous writer Gabriele D'Annunzio to take credit for the script.

Pastrone and his fellow-director Enrico Guazzoni were pioneers of a genre which has been a mainstay of Italian cinema. Their work also had a significant influence on many foreign directors, including the American D. W. Griffith. Pastrone made several more films, including a series starring the strongman Maciste and an adaptation of Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, before giving up film-making in 1923 to become a medical researcher. He died in Turin on June 27, 1959.