Augusto Genina

Who was Augusto Genina?

Augusto Genina was an Italian film pioneer. He was a movie producer and director.

Born in Rome, Genina was a drama critic and wrote comedies for the Il Mondo Magazine, under advise of Aldo de Benedetti switches to movies for the "Film d'Arte Italiana", that produces his first film "La moglie di sua eccellenza". In 1929 Genina moved to France to direct Louise Brooks in sonorized film Prix de beauté. He studied sound techniques and worked in France and Germany in same but alternate languages film versions which were filmed simultaneously, before his return to Italy.

He won Venice Film Festival Mussolini's cup for Best Italian Film twice, in 1936 by Lo squadrone bianco and in 1940 by The Siege of the Alcazar, both Fascist propaganda films.

In 1953, he filmed Three Forbidden Stories, another version of the real tragic accident that Giuseppe De Santis made one year before in Rome 11 o'clock.