He was born on May 15, 1928 in Milan. By education - veterinarian, for some time worked as a seller of alcoholic beverages, engaged in advertising, journalism. In 1950, together with C. Zawattini, he created the journal Documento Mensile (Documentary Monthly - news, documentary materials, etc.), but after two issues, the project was closed. While trading in film equipment, in Spain he met writer and screenwriter Rafael Ascona, whose friendship marked the beginning of many years of cooperation. The
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He was born on May 15, 1928 in Milan. By education - veterinarian, for some time worked as a seller of alcoholic beverages, engaged in advertising, journalism. In 1950, together with C. Zawattini, he created the journal Documento Mensile (Documentary Monthly - news, documentary materials, etc.), but after two issues, the project was closed. While trading in film equipment, in Spain he met writer and screenwriter Rafael Ascona, whose friendship marked the beginning of many years of cooperation. The first films of the director, shot in Spain - "Apartment" ("El Pisito", 1959), "Guys" ("Los Chicos", 1959) and "Wheelchair" (1960), in an acutely satirical, with elements of black humor, manner depicted the life of modern Spain. Returning to Italy, he quickly gained a reputation as a director of a bourgeois society that was irreconcilable to traditional values: in his paintings he ruthlessly dealt with the falsity of the modern institution of marriage (Modern History, The Monkey Woman, 1963) and the consumer society as a whole (Dillinger is dead, 1968, The Big Food, 1973). Another theme characteristic of Ferreri’s work is the problem of gender relations, to which he repeatedly addressed, in different ways, sometimes shocking the public, throughout his life: “Lisa” (1972), “The Last Woman” (1976), “The Story of Pierre” (1983), “The Future is a Woman” (1984), etc. Despite the fact that Ferreri's films of the 80s were noticeably inferior to his own works of previous years, by the beginning of the new decade he managed to draw attention again - the drama House of Smiles, released in 1990, received the Golden Bear prize at the international film festival in Berlin. His last films were The Diary of a Maniac (1993) and Silver Nitrate (1996). He died on May 9, 1997 in Paris of a heart attack.