Akademik

(1931-)

   Critic, screenwriter, director. After graduating from university with a degree in law, Leto enrolled at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. He subsequently worked as a film critic for Il Globo, while also serving as an assistant to directors Mario Monicelli, Florestano Vancini, and Renato Castellani. In 1963 he began working for state television and for a period also held the post of artistic director at the Istituto LUCE before directing his first feature, La villeggiatura (Black Holiday, 1972), a perceptive analysis of Fascism widely regarded as his best film and for which he received numerous awards, including a Nastro d'argento and the Mario Gromo Award for Best Director. While continuing to produce a host of award-winning programs for television, he directed his second feature film, Al piacere di rivederla (Till We Meet Again, 1976). He taught at the Centro Sperimentale between 1983 and 1987 and coauthored several novels before directing Una donna spezzata (The Woman Destroyed, 1988), closely followed by L'uscita (The Exit, 1989) and A proposito di quella strana ragazza (About That Foreign Girl, 1989), both of which tackled the difficult theme of political terrorism. He subsequently directed L'inchiesta (The Investigation, 1991), adapted from one of his earlier novels, and worked as a director of dubbing while also publishing another novel, a neo-noir titled L'intrattenimento (Entertainment, 2001).