Italian screenwriter, film director and novelist, mostly known as a prominent exponent of the ‘commedia all’italiana’ genre.
He moved to Rome at a young age, starting as a writer and literary critic. La nonna Sabella, one of his novels, was later adapted by Dino Risi into the movie of the same name, internationally known as Oh! Sabella (1957).
He began his cinema career as a screenwriter with Faddija – La legge della vendetta (1949) by Roberto Bianchi Montero and later co-produced masterpieces of Italian cinema such as Poveri ma belli (1957) by Risi and Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and The Leopard (1963) by Luchino Visconti.
His first film as a director was A Sentimental Attempt (1963), along with Massimo Franciosa. Subsequently he made many films of the ‘commedia all’italiana’ genre, including La Matriarca (1969), Il merlo maschio (1971), Jus primae noctis (1972) and Conviene far bene l’amore (1975).
Pasquale Festa Campanile collaborated with Italian singer and actor Adriano Celentano, directing him in films like Rugantino (1973), Qua la mano (1980) and Bingo Bongo (1982). Other notable movies include Soldier of Fortune, a satirical revisiting of the challenge of Barletta; the crime film Hitch-Hike (1977); the LGBT-themed Nessuno è perfetto (1981); Petomaniac (1983), loosely based on French entertainer Joseph Pujol and A Proper Scandal (1984), inspired by the Bruneri-Canella case which is also his last cinematographic work.
Festa Campanile married Italian painter Anna Salvatore, from whom he divorced in 1962. Later he was linked to actresses Maria Grazia Spina, Catherine Spaak and Lilli Carati. He married his last wife, Rosalba Mazzamuto, a year prior to his death.
He died of a kidney tumour at Rome on 25 February 1986, aged 58.
Link to Wikipedia biography