Family Diary

Family Diary
Directed by	Valerio Zurlini
Produced by	Goffredo Lombardo
Written by	Mario Missiroli
Starring	Marcello Mastroianni
Music by	Goffredo Petrassi
Cinematography	Giuseppe Rotunno
Editing by	Mario Serandrei
Distributed by	Titanus
Release date(s)	September, 1962 (premiere at VFF) 11 November 1963 (NYC)
Running time	115 mins
Country	Italy/France
Language	Italian

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 at their mother's death, then brought together by difficult family circumstances.

Once described as the "classiest male weepie ever filmed", Family Diary is an exemplary adaptation of the semi-autobiographical Vasco Pratolini novel Two Brothers, and won Zurlini a shared Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

Marcello Mastroianni gives a sensitive, finely judged performance as Enrico, a struggling journalist in the Rome of 1945. 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 brought up by their poor but warm-hearted grandmother (Sylvie), Lorenzo was raised as a gentleman by a wealthy local aristocrat. Reunited in the Florence of the 1930s, Enrico becomes his spoilt brother's keeper, forever haunted by a sense of guilty responsibility towards a man he both hates and loves.

Beautifully photographed by Giuseppe Rotunno, this austere, deeply-felt masterwork has been acclaimed as one of Zurlini's greatest achievements.

Cast

• Marcello Mastroianni - Enrico
• Jacques Perrin - Lorenzo
• Sylvie - Grandmother
• Salvo Randone - Salocchi
• Valeria Ciangottini - Enzina
• Serena Vergano - Hospital Nun
• Marco Guglielmi
• Franca Pasut
• Miranda Campa
• Nino Fuscagni
• Marcella Valeri

External links

• Family Diary at the Internet Movie Database
• Family Diary at AllRovi
• [1] Martha King's English translation of Cronaca familiare as Family Chronicle.