Dino De Laurentiis — Profile (1975) 🇨🇦
If he had followed the dictates of his father, Dino De Laurentiis might now be a manufacturer of pasta and the motion picture industry would have lost one of its most dynamic figures.
Born in a small town on the lovely Amalfi coast, near Naples, Mr. De Laurentiis’ father expected him one day to take over the family business, the manufacture and sale of spaghetti and other similar products. But the boy was movie struck, in the way that most adventurous and romantic boys were and still are. He took himself off to Rome and enrolled himself.in the actor’s class of the Experimental Film Center. He was seventeen and literally ran away from home.
A crisis arose when his father, hoping to force the lad to “come to his senses”, cut off his allowance. But young Dino stood firm. Living through hard times, often getting by on one cheap meal a day, he sought work as an ‘extra player’ in order to continue his studies. Nothing he vowed, was going to prevent him from becoming the great actor he hoped to be. He exhibited the single-mindedness and determination then that has since marked his career as one of the world’s most successful and prolific film producers.
His persistence finally paid off, for he was offered a role in a picture, playing opposite Assia Noris, the great Italian actress of that time. The role solved some of his immediate financial problems and the even more humiliating possibility of having to return home. But there was one condition which he found almost impossible to meet; the part demanded that he wear a pair of black shoes, a luxury he did not possess. Undaunted and displaying another trait that later revealed itself to be typical of the man, a mélange of ingenuity and faith in his fellow man, he walked into a shoe store and frankly explained his dilemma. Would the shopkeeper grant him credit until the next day? Liking the youth’s impudence and sincerity, the owner took the risk, giving him the shoes without any guarantee. The following evening, he returned, only to find it closed for the night. Dino resourcefully located the owner’s residence and ‘paid his bill, surprising the man and winning his admiration. To this day, Mr. De Laurentiis has worn nothing but black shoes.
Although his career began to move ahead, the young actor suddenly lost interest in this side of the business, for he discovered a more fascinating world behind the camera. As ambitious as ever, he set his sights on becoming a producer.
Beginning from the very bottom rung of the ladder, he worked as a labourer, propman, cashier, assistant director and unit manager. He did everything with speed, as is his nature, and it was not long before he felt mature enough to realize his dream. He was only twenty years old. Who would give him a chance?
Again he revealed his characteristic Capacity for resolving difficulties. Realizing no one in Rome would take him Seriously, he travelled to Turin, richest city in Piedmont and for years the cradle of the Italian Film industry.
Renting an impressive looking automobile, though penniless, he made the rounds in search of venture capital for his first production. Whether it was the car, or his own persuasiveness, he nevertheless negotiated his first deal in record time and became one of the youngest film producers in history.
De Laurentiis was among the first of the “neo-realistic” producers, whose — work has since found a permanent place in world culture as one of the most important cinematic events to take place in post-war years. From that moment on, the young producer played a determining role in the reconstruction of Italian motion pictures, both as an industry and as an artistic venture.
But the Italian film was still something of an “art house” picture in the English-language countries, praised by critics and intellectuals but rarely reaching the great mass audience of the world. Mr. De Laurentiis decided to alter that and revised his future production plans to produce only films that would have a more universal appeal, thus he led the Italian industry into direct competition with Hollywood.
In quick succession, he produced “Ulysses”, “War and Peace”, “The Tempest”, “Under Ten Flags”, “This Angry Age”, “Barabbas”, “The Best of Enemies”, “The Bible… in the Beginhing”, “Waterloo” and literally hundreds of others. Time Magazine said of him at the time “largely because of De Laurentiis, the Italian film industry — which in its first post-war years could barely afford a shoe-shine — now looks more like Hollywood than Hollywood itself.
But the American film is now in the midst of a renaissance, a second coming of sorts, and now the De Laurentiis Organization is absolutely involved in that Mr. De Laurentiis has come to America to make AMERICAN films and with productions like “The Valachi Papers”, “Serpico”, “Death Wish”, “Mandingo” and “Three Days of the Condor”, he has firmly established that fact.
What De Laurentiis seeks above all is to entertain people. That’s what he’s doing now, that’s what he has always done and that’s what he does best. In the context of his time, he is making films for people to believe in, for people who are truly dying for entertainment. “Nothing”, he says, “can ever replace the big screen as a medium of entertainment, providing, of course, we make the very best use of the medium to give the public something they can never possibly get on their living room screens. Give the public good entertainment, based on stories that have Something to say and they will be intrigued as well as entertained.”
In this business, the motion picture industry, you find an industry that is not isolated by language or ethnic barriers. It is strictly an international medium. You can put a Chinaman holding a camera, a German lighting the set and a Frenchman on sound, with an African director and English: stars, and still come up with an American movie. That’s what Dino De Laurentiis wants to do — by making an American movie he is making a movie for the world.
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Faye Dunaway and Dino De Laurentiis on the set of his latest production, Three Days of the Condor.
Collection: Showbill Magazine, September 1975