Mastroianni’s 100th birthday, for Treccani ‘the most loved star’

For the Institute of the Italian Encyclopedia Treccani Marcello Mastroianni, born in Fontana Liri (Frosinone) one hundred years ago, on 28 September 1924, and died in Paris on 19 December 1996, was the most beloved star of post-war Italian cinema. As the entry edited by Tullio Kezich for the Encyclopedia of Cinema Treccani recalls, Mastroianni trained at Luchino Visconti’s theater school and became the alter ego of Federico Fellini, going down in history as the most loved Italian star of the post-war period, an eclectic interpreter of around 150 films often signed by very important directors. His growth on the theater stage coincided with his success in cinema, which began in 1948 by impersonating a revolutionary in Riccardo Freda’s Les Misérables and continued between humor and melody, then broadening his expressive range to characterizations and always finding brilliant inventive solutions on the set thanks to his ability to concentrate.