Family Diary

Family Diary
Directed by Valerio Zurlini
Produced by Goffredo Lombardo
Written by Mario Missiroli
Starring Marcello Mastroianni
Music by Goffredo Petrassi
Cinematography Giuseppe Rotunno
Edited by Mario Serandrei
Distributed by Titanus
Release dates
 September 1962 (premiere at VFF)
11 November 1963 (New York City)
Running time
 115 mins
Country Italy/France
Language Italian

Family Diary (Italian: Cronaca familiare) is a 1962 Italian film directed by Valerio Zurlini and based on the novel by Vasco Pratolini. It tells the story of two brothers (played by Marcello Mastroianni and Jacques Perrin) who are brought up apart from each other at their mother's death, then brought together by difficult family circumstances.

Once described as the "classiest male weepie ever filmed", Family Diary is an exemplary adaptation of the semi-autobiographical Vasco Pratolini novel Two Brothers, and won Zurlini a shared Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Marcello Mastroianni gives a sensitive, finely judged performance as Enrico, a struggling journalist in the Rome of 1945. He receives a phone call informing him that his younger brother Lorenzo (Jacques Perrin) has died. Enrico recalls their long and difficult relationship; he was brought up by their poor, but warm-hearted grandmother (Sylvie), Lorenzo was raised as a gentleman by a wealthy local aristocrat. Reunited in the Florence of the 1930s, Enrico becomes his spoiled brother's keeper, forever haunted by a sense of guilty and responsibility towards a man he both hates and loves.

Beautifully photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno, this austere, deeply felt masterwork has been acclaimed as one of Zurlini's greatest achievements.

Cast

External links