Massimo Mida
Writing
Biography
Massimo Mida, born Massimo Puccini, was an Italian screenwriter and film director active from the early 1940s to the mid-1980s. He began his career as a screenwriter, contributing to films such as A Pilot Returns (1942). Mida transitioned to directing with works like Behind Closed Shutters (1951) and At the Edge of the City (1953). His filmography includes notable titles such as Good Folk's Sunday (1953) and Chronicle of Poor Lovers (1954). Mida's work is recognized for its engagement with Italian neorealism, reflecting the socio-political climate of post-war Italy.
Known For

Six stories unfold in various regions, from Sicily to the northern Po Valley as American military personnel interact with a variety of Italian locals over eighteen months in the push north during the Italian Campaign of WWII as German forces retreat.
Paisan

In Italy, Checco Dal Monte manages a troupe of traveling performers with plenty of heart but minimal talent. At a small town engagement, he encounters the starry-eyed, gorgeous Lily Antonelli, and hires her as a dancer on the show. Vivacious Lily quickly sells out crowds and earns the resentment of Checco's mistress, Melina Amour, but the fledgling performer has far bigger ambitions and soon sets her sights on a higher-profile role.
Variety Lights

Achilles, a Hulot-like factotum for an evening newspaper, travels around looking for a scoop in the Milan of the "economic miracle."
The Screwball

During the winter of 1944, the partisans stationed in the Ligurian Apennines must go to a factory in Genoa, in order to pick up a delivery of weapons. Meanwhile, there's a strike in the city and the Nazis are trying to suppress it violently. The factory becomes the scene of fighting between the Germans and the partisans but the latter, aided by the workers, will be able to get the better.
Attention! Bandits!

In the background of the football match Roma - Napoli different stories intertwine.
Good Folk's Sunday

Middle class Sandra, engaged to be married and living in Turin, searches for her missing sister that is estranged from her family. For this, she enters the morally degraded back allies of the port city of Genoa and is exposed to the world of sex trafficking.
Behind Closed Shutters

Young Italian writers and directors express themselves in four episodes about sex and love. "Love and Language," the first tale, centers on the difficulties of a Sicilian immigrant who is unable to master proper Italian. the second tale "Love and Life" centers on a jealous and unhappy wife who becomes so desperate to be free of her constantly philandering husband she takes on a lover of her own. "Love and Art" a nearly exhausted screenwriter hires a secretary to help manage his typing. She's a pretty lass and this makes his insecure wife crazy until he fires the female and hires a male secretary. "Love and Death," the final episode centers on the love affair between a middle-aged widower and the grieving young widow he meets at the cemetery. Unfortuantely for his bank statement, the young, impoverished beauty isn't as bereaved as she seems.
Love in Four Dimensions

Florence, Italy, 1925, during the fascist dictatorship. In order to live near his girlfriend Bianca, young Mario moves to a humble street in the old city center, where he befriends Maciste and Ugo, two anti-fascists.
Chronicle of Poor Lovers

E.C.H.O., a secret organization with a strange name masterminds a bizarre plot to take over the world by dosing important `nerve centers' with super potent LSD. The only man who can stop them is Rex, a secret agent working for an undisclosed organization.
LSD Flesh of Devil

Based on real events, in Rome a lawyer is not sure whether to accept defending a lower-class worker wrongly accused of the murder of his girlfriend.
At the Edge of the City

Duke Altichieri rises to power, after his associate, Cpt. Alberico, kills governor Conte Filippo della Scala. 10 harsh years of tyranny follow, until a mysterious figure appears out of nowhere, helping people in their struggle against the regime. He is known by the name Red-Masked Prince, but who is he?
The Prince with the Red Mask

A radio operator for the British Army is captured in a Nazi-occupied Dutch city.
The House of Intrigue

A young Italian pilot is interned in a British prison camp after his plane is shot down during the war against Greece. He falls in love with a doctor's daughter and manages to escape during a bombardment. He reaches home, wounded, just as news arrives of the Greek surrender.
A Pilot Returns

A whimsical commedia all'italiana divided into four episodes.
Bianco, rosso, giallo, rosa

Paola, still young and married to a rich industrialist, seeks an outlet to the uselessness of her life by coming into contact with the young activists of the student movement, meetings she attends. Paula tries to convert even her teenage children Afdera and Prando, to the ideas of the movement, who end up accepting the mother's convictions and agree to participate in an action of sabotage against a large factory. But when they discover that the factory to be sabotaged is precisely that of the father, they renounce the mission, disappointing the mother.
La donna a una dimensione
No description available.
Il fratello
No description available.
La città di Pavese
The Peace Newsreel is the prototype of those independent and collective film initiatives on topics of social and political interest that Cesare Zavattini later promoted further through the “Free Newsreels.” Here, the general theme is peace, and it is introduced by Mario Soldati.
Il Cinegiornale della pace

A day in Rome viewed by sixteen different directors under the supervision of the great screenwriter Cesare Zavattini.