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John Fante

John Fante

Writing

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Fante (April 8, 1909 – May 8, 1983) was an Italian-American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter. He is best known for his semi-autobiographical novel Ask the Dust (1939) about the life of a struggling writer, Arturo Bandini, in Depression-era Los Angeles. It is widely considered the great Los Angeles novel and is one in a series of four novels, published between 1938 and 1985, that are now collectively called "The Bandini Quartet". Ask the Dust was adapted into a film made in 2006, starring Colin Farrell. In his lifetime, Fante published five novels, one novella, and a short story collection. Additional works, including two novels, two novellas, and two short story collections, were published posthumously. His screenwriting credits include, most notably, Full of Life (1956), based on his 1952 novel by that name, Jeanne Eagels (1957), and the 1962 films Walk on the Wild Side and The Reluctant Saint.

Known For

Ask the Dust
5.4

Mexican beauty Camilla hopes to rise above her station by marrying a wealthy American. That is complicated by meeting Arturo Bandini, a first-generation Italian hoping to land a writing career and a blue-eyed blonde on his arm.

Ask the Dust

2006
Walk on the Wild Side
6.6

At a 1930s New Orleans bordello, Hallie is the main attraction for both clients and the shrewd madam. The arrival of Dove Linkhorn, her lovesick sweetheart from three years ago, disrupts the normal and triggers a chain of events involving a number of people, including the young woman he travelled with, who is now the Doll House's newest employee.

Walk on the Wild Side

1962
Maya
5.8

A big-game hunter's son and a Hindu boy brave the jungle in order to deliver a baby white elephant to an Indian temple.

Maya

1966
The Reluctant Saint
7.8

Cupertino, Italy, 1623: A simple-minded and clumsy young man joins a Franciscan order as a hired hand, overcoming his intellectual and social challenges with a pure heart and a simple faith. God performs a miracle through him, quite literally raising him to sainthood.

The Reluctant Saint

1962
Jeanne Eagels
6.2

Biographical film based loosely on the life of 1920s stage star Jeanne Eagels.

Jeanne Eagels

1957
My Man and I
7.0

In California, a Mexican-American laborer is falsely accused of shooting the racist farmer he was working for after the farmer stiffed him with a bad check.

My Man and I

1952
Something for a Lonely Man
7.6

The blacksmith of a small western town finds himself an outcast. He had led the townspeople west in hopes of starting a new life, only to find the town that they founded is to be bypassed by the railroad.

Something for a Lonely Man

1968
My Dog Stupid
6.0

Henri is a middle-aged writer with fading inspiration who has published nothing worthy of note in years. Feeling increasingly misunderstood by his wife and four grown up deadbeat kids, he dreams of running away to start over again. Yet when he discovers an unattractive, bad-mannered dog in his garden, he decides to adopt him and both start developing an unexpected friendship that inevitably upsets Henri’s family and neighbors.

My Dog Stupid

2019
Wait Until Spring, Bandini
6.2

Rocklin Colorado, 1925. A hard cold winter. Young Arturo Bandini loves his father Svevo, his mother Maria and his brothers. Even though his bricklayer father wastes the little money he has in the Imperial Poolhall and his time with the rich American widow, Hildegarde. Even though his beautiful and pious mother lets his father get away with that, even if his little brother wets the bed. Arturo loves them all. He also loves to play baseball, even though he has to wait until spring. And he also loves the movies ... and Rosa. But she doesn't love him ...

Wait Until Spring, Bandini

1989
The Golden Fleecing
5.9

A mild-mannered insurance salesman gets mixed up with gangsters.

The Golden Fleecing

1940
Dinky
7.3

A mother sends her young son to military school so he won't find out she's been sentenced to a prison term on a framed fraud charge.

Dinky

1935
My Six Loves
5.7

A celebrated actress discovers six runaway children living on her country property.

My Six Loves

1963
Broads
N/A

The social democrats of the sixties and seventies worked on their grand plan to build a highway network in Germany that every German citizen could reach within five minutes of their home. The little film hangs around between and on the streets of this network - where the country discos, pedestrian zones, shopping centers, hospitals and roads home are behind noise barriers.

Broads

1989
No image
N/A

An unfinished omnibus film project by Orson Welles exploring Latin American life through documentary and dramatized non-fiction.

It's All True

1943
Youth Runs Wild
4.5

The teens of a defense-plant town hop on the road to juvenile delinquency while their parents are busy with the war.

Youth Runs Wild

1944
Full of Life
6.5

A father-in-law's visit makes life even more complicated for a struggling writer and his pregnant wife.

Full of Life

1956
A Sad Flower in the Sand
N/A

About a largely unsung writer of the twentieth century: John Fante, the renegade author whose highly autobiographical novels illustrate his deep-rooted love of Los Angeles and his struggles working through poverty and prejudice.

A Sad Flower in the Sand

2001