Mario Volpe

Biography

Mario Volpe was born in 1896 in Naples, Italy. He studied engineering before entering the Academy of Fine Arts, where he learned painting and sculpture. In 1912 he appeared as an extra in silent Italian films In 1914 he starred in "The Adventures of a Journalist", produced by the Napoli Film House where he worked until 1918 as an assistant director. In 1920 he moved to Montalbano Film Florence where he began to work as a director and directed five silent feature films, including "The Master", "Thou shalt not kill!", "The Mystery" and "The Ace of Spades". He then left the cinema to devote himself to teaching and founded an acting school with Valentino Soldani, that was short lived. In 1930, in Paris, he met the Behna brothers, producers of films in Egypt who offered him to direct the first sound film of the Egyptian cinema entitled "the Song of the Heart" in 1931. He accepted and the film was released in 1932. For many reasons, the film was not a popular success but Mario Volpe moved to Egypt where he directed four more films. In 1937 he returned to Italy, but it is only after the war that he was able to make some films like "The Two Sisters" in 1950. He died in 1968 at the age of 73.