ALBANESE, Antonio 1964-

PERSONAL: Born October 10, 1964, in Olginate, Lecco, Italy. Education: Civica Scuola d'Arte Drammatica, Milan, Italy, graduated, 1991.

ADDRESSES: Agent—Luisa Pistoia Management, Piazza Martiri di Belfiore, 4-00195 Roma, Italy.

CAREER: Actor, director, and screenwriter. Actor in films, including Un'anima divisa in due (also known as A Soul Split in Two and A Split Soul), 1993; (as Antonio) Vesna va veloce, 1996; (as Antonio) Uomo d'acqua dolce, 1996; Dead Train, 1997; (as Felice) Tu ridi (also known as You Laugh and You're Laughing), RaiTrade, 1998; (as voice of Big Rat) La Gabbianella e il gatto (also known as Zorba and Lucky), Trimark Video, 1998; (as Alex/Ivo/Pacifico) La fame e la sete (also known as Hunger and Thirst), Cecchi Gori Group, 1999; (as Antonio) La lingua del santo (also known as Holy Tongue), Medusa Distribuzione, 2000; and (as Antonio) Il nostro matrimonio è in crisi, 2002. Director, Il nostro matrimonio è in crisi.

WRITINGS:

(With Vincenso Cerami; and director and actor) Uomo d'acqua dolce (screenplay), 1996.

(With Vincenso Cerami; and director and actor) La fame e la sete (screenplay), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS: Italian comedian and actor Antonio Albanese has been in films since the early 1990s. He has appeared in numerous movies in his native country, and has also co-written and directed two films, Uomo d'acqua dolce and La fame e la sete. Uomo d'acqua dolce is the story of a man—played by Albanese—who is hit on the head by a falling package when he is out buying mushrooms for his pregnant wife, Beatrice. The blow gives him amnesia, and for the next five years he wanders, not knowing who he is or what happened to him. His wife, who doesn't know what happened to him either, assumes that he has simply abandoned her and starts seeing a musician named Gotffredo. When, five years later, he returns home with the mushrooms and with no memory of being hit on the head, he "launches a determined, comical campaign to win back the naturally reticent Beatrice," wrote MSN Entertainment contributor Sandra Brennan.

The second film Albanese co-authored with Vincenso Cerami, La fame e la sete, is about three brothers who are reunited for the first time in many years when they all return to their native Sicily for their father's funeral. Albanese plays all three brothers, who are very different in personality: Alex is a fat, spoiled photographer; Salvatore has moved to the northern part of the country and become a heartless businessman; and Pacifico, a quiet, shy high school teacher.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 34, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

PERIODICALS

Variety, September 18, 2000, David Rooney, review of Holy Tongue, p. 35.

ONLINE

Attoriitaliani.com,http://www.attoriitaliani.com/ (February 2, 2003), "Luisa Pistoia Management: Antonio Albanese."

Italica,http://www.italica.rai.it/ (January 31, 2003), "Biography of Antonio Albanese."

MSN Entertainment,http://entertainment.msn.com/ (January 31, 2003), summaries of Tu ridi, La lingua del santo, La fame e la sete, and Uomo d'acqua dolce.*