Vittorio De Seta

Directing

Vittorio De Seta

Born 1923-10-15 · Palermo, Sicily, Italy

Vittorio De Seta (15 October 1923 – 28 November 2011) was an Italian cinema director and screenwriter, considered one of the Italian cinema's great imaginative realists of the 1960s. De Seta made ten short documentaries between 1954 and 1959, before directing his first feature-length film, Banditi a Orgosolo (Bandits of Orgosolo). His early documentaries focus on the everyday life of many of Sicily's poorest workers, and are notable for their lack of voice-over narration, quiet mood, and striking color.

Acting credits

Cinéma et Réalité poster
6.5

In this documentary, giants of italian cinema such as Rossellini, De Sica, Fellini and Zavattini talk about the importance of cinema after WW2, and about huge moments of social rebellion. This movie gives the floor to the creators of italian neorealism.

Cinéma et Réalité

1967

What Do You Know About Me poster
7.0

Until the 1970s, Italian cinema dominated the international scene, even competing with Hollywood. Then, in just a few years, came its rapid decline, the flight of our greatest producers, a crisis among the best writer-directors, the collapse of production. But what are the true causes and circumstances of this decline? In an attempt to provide an answer to this question, Di Me Cosa Ne Sai strives to depict this great cultural change. Begun as a loving examination of Italian cinema, the film transformed into a docu-drama that alternates between interviews with the great names of the past and fragments of cultural and political life of the last 30 years. It is a travel diary that shows Italy from north to south, through movie theatres; television-addicted kids; Berlusconi and Fellini; shopping centers; TV news editors; stories of impassioned film exhibitors and directors who fight for their films; and interviews with itinerant projectionists and great European directors.

What Do You Know About Me

2009

No artwork available
6.8

Alan Lomax (1915-2002) was a song collector who recorded ordinary people, who gave their heart and soul in front of his microphone. The film maker decides to search for people Lomax recorded, travelling through Europe in an old Volkswagen. His journey leads him past desolate Scottish islands, through the withered interior of Spain and to isolated Italian mountain villages. The search is combined with conversations with colleagues and friends of Lomax. Throughout the movie, every now and then we return to a frail but happy 86-year old Lomax. In this passionate and musical roadmovie we slowly discover why folk music can be so pretty and what could have once possessed the legendary Alan Lomax.

Lomax the Songhunter

2004

Détour De Seta poster
7.0

By tracing the places of Vittorio De Seta films and looking for people who had contact with him, as the Cozzo Disi sulfur miners, Ganzirri swordfish fishermens and shepherds who attended in drama Banditi a Orgosolo, the documentary focuses on great change started in local cultures of the Southern Italy from 1945. The film includes an interview with De Seta, conversations with the film directors Luciano Tovoli, Franco Maresco, Gianfranco Pannone, writers Vincenzo Consolo, Goffredo Fofi, Eugenio Turri and the critic Marco Gazzano. Set in Calabria, Sardinia and Sicily, the film was shot in 35mm film and digital, contains stock footage and images taken by De Seta.

Détour De Seta

2005

Mark Donskoy, King and Jester poster
5.2

Documentary about the Soviet film director and his changing fortunes during the Stalin years.

Mark Donskoy, King and Jester

2011

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Tornare a Orgosolo

1997

Vittorio De Seta: Lo sguardo in ascolto poster
NR

Interview by Ciprì and Maresco with Vittorio De Seta and Fofi.

Vittorio De Seta: Lo sguardo in ascolto

1995

Vittorio De Seta: The Filmmaker Is an Athlete poster
NR

This portrait of a film director unlike any other attempts to capture the essence of Vittorio de Seta’s rapport with the humble people he filmed and elegantly brought to Cinema Scope’s big screen in color from the 1950s onwards. From his home in Calabria, the film director looks back over his epic films.

Vittorio De Seta: The Filmmaker Is an Athlete

2010

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Vittorio De Seta, la grammatica del documentario

2008

Behind the camera

Dedicato ad Antonino Uccello poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Dedicato ad Antonino Uccello

2003

Dedicato ad Antonino Uccello poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Dedicato ad Antonino Uccello

2003

All Human Rights for All poster
NR

Collective film for the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with 30 directors each helming a segment about one of the 30 articles of the Declaration.

All Human Rights for All

2008

All Human Rights for All poster
NR

Collective film for the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with 30 directors each helming a segment about one of the 30 articles of the Declaration.

All Human Rights for All

2008

Bandits of Orgosolo poster
7.5

A Sardinian peasant is implicated in the murder of a policeman and, although innocent, he doesn’t give himself up, lacking faith in the judicial system and fearing that he may lose his sheep while awaiting trial.

Bandits of Orgosolo

1961

Bandits of Orgosolo poster
7.5

A Sardinian peasant is implicated in the murder of a policeman and, although innocent, he doesn’t give himself up, lacking faith in the judicial system and fearing that he may lose his sheep while awaiting trial.

Bandits of Orgosolo

1961

Bandits of Orgosolo poster
7.5

A Sardinian peasant is implicated in the murder of a policeman and, although innocent, he doesn’t give himself up, lacking faith in the judicial system and fearing that he may lose his sheep while awaiting trial.

Bandits of Orgosolo

1961

Magic Village poster
7.0

Robert and his fiancée Lucienne were due to go on vacation together to a tented village in Sicily. Robert is forced to postpone his trip and only joins Lucienne a few days later, taking advantage of the departure of a following group. During the train journey, he befriends Thérèse, a young Sicilian living in Paris, who wants to make a pilgrimage to the land of her ancestors. Lucienne is away from the camp when Robert arrives, so he can continue to see Thérèse, and little by little they discover that they love each other. When Lucienne returns, an explanation and reconciliation take place, then Robert changes his mind and, with the vacations over, leaves Lucienne alone to live in Sicily with Thérèse, who wants to stay in her family's homeland.

Magic Village

1955

Almost a Man poster
6.5

A young writer descends into madness. Alienated, neurotic, and plagued by guilt, Michele retreats from reality, loses interest in work, and comes to the brink of suicide before being sent to an asylum for shock therapy. Escaping from the asylum, Michele returns to his boyhood home, where he learns the reasons for his present mental state.

Almost a Man

1966

Almost a Man poster
6.5

A young writer descends into madness. Alienated, neurotic, and plagued by guilt, Michele retreats from reality, loses interest in work, and comes to the brink of suicide before being sent to an asylum for shock therapy. Escaping from the asylum, Michele returns to his boyhood home, where he learns the reasons for his present mental state.

Almost a Man

1966

Almost a Man poster
6.5

A young writer descends into madness. Alienated, neurotic, and plagued by guilt, Michele retreats from reality, loses interest in work, and comes to the brink of suicide before being sent to an asylum for shock therapy. Escaping from the asylum, Michele returns to his boyhood home, where he learns the reasons for his present mental state.

Almost a Man

1966

The Uninvited poster
6.1

When her husband returns from his work abroad with a guest, a young girl, his wife suspects a liaison. She leaves her home. Her boss takes her to the Côte d'Azur. They get closer during the long voyage and the man invites her to his marital home.

The Uninvited

1969

The Uninvited poster
6.1

When her husband returns from his work abroad with a guest, a young girl, his wife suspects a liaison. She leaves her home. Her boss takes her to the Côte d'Azur. They get closer during the long voyage and the man invites her to his marital home.

The Uninvited

1969

Sulfur Mines poster
6.1

Harshness and beauty exist side by side in this look at the lives of sulfur mine workers and their families in southern Italy.

Sulfur Mines

1955

Sulfur Mines poster
6.1

Harshness and beauty exist side by side in this look at the lives of sulfur mine workers and their families in southern Italy.

Sulfur Mines

1955

Letters from Sahara poster
6.5

The story of a young Senegalese man who treks the Sahara, takes an immigrant boat bound for Italy, the attempts to eke out a living there - finally deciding to return to his native place. Vittorio De Seta's first fiction feature since 1969.

Letters from Sahara

2006

Letters from Sahara poster
6.5

The story of a young Senegalese man who treks the Sahara, takes an immigrant boat bound for Italy, the attempts to eke out a living there - finally deciding to return to his native place. Vittorio De Seta's first fiction feature since 1969.

Letters from Sahara

2006

The Forgotten poster
6.8

Vittorio De Seta travels to Alessandria del Carretto, a small town in the province of Cosenza, to capture a unique celebration known as the “Feast of Silver.”

The Forgotten

1959

The Forgotten poster
6.8

Vittorio De Seta travels to Alessandria del Carretto, a small town in the province of Cosenza, to capture a unique celebration known as the “Feast of Silver.”

The Forgotten

1959

Articolo 23 (Pentedattilo) poster
NR

A desert village perched on a mountain of Aspromonte. A young farmer teaches the craft to a laborer from Senegal. The next day the farmer will have to emigrate to the North in search of work and leave his mother and his homeland. Against the backdrop of evocative landscapes, filtered by the look of a master of our cinema, there are the fates of immigrants and emigrants.

Articolo 23 (Pentedattilo)

2008

In Calabria poster
7.5

Vittorio De Seta's documentary about the Calabria, revisiting the territory he documented in I Dimenticati in 1959.

In Calabria

1993

Fishing Boats poster
6.4

The unpredictable nature of the sea governs the world of Sicilian fishermen as they work, rest, and seek refuge from a storm.

Fishing Boats

1958

Fishing Boats poster
6.4

The unpredictable nature of the sea governs the world of Sicilian fishermen as they work, rest, and seek refuge from a storm.

Fishing Boats

1958

Islands of Fire poster
6.9

The first light of dawn. The sound of a boat and the screech of birds fill the wide expanse of sea. Black rocks emerge from the water, the “sciara” – the volcanic scoria – of Stromboli, the underwater sulfurous emanations, the layers of reddish rock eroded by the sea. The roar of the volcano can be heard, the flames and the liquid lava are thrown skyward. As nature unleashes itself, the fishermen row toward the shore, the sheep stray and the women return home.

Islands of Fire

1955