Family Diary
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 after their mother's death. The two were reunited after a difficult family circumstances.
| Family Diary | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Valerio Zurlini |
| Written by | Mario Missiroli |
| Produced by | Goffredo Lombardo |
| Starring | Marcello Mastroianni Jacques Perrin Sylvie Valeria Ciangottini Salvo Randone |
| Cinematography | Giuseppe Rotunno |
| Edited by | Mario Serandrei |
| Music by | Goffredo Petrassi |
| Distributed by | Titanus Metro Goldwyn Mayer |
Release dates | September 1962 (premiere at VFF) 11 November 1963 (New York City) 8 December 1963 (United States) |
Running time | 115 mins |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
Described by Elliot Stein in The Village Voice as "the classiest 'male weepie' ever filmed", Family Diary is an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical Vasco Pratolini novel Two Brothers, and won Zurlini a shared Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.
Marcello Mastroianni plays Enrico, a struggling journalist in 1945 Rome. 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 raised by their poor but warm-hearted grandmother (Sylvie), while 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 guilt and responsibility towards a man he both hates and loves.
Photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno, this film has been acclaimed as one of Zurlini's greatest achievements.