Barbara Alberti


Barbara Alberti is an Italian writer, journalist and screenwriter.

Early life

Alberti was born in Umbertide and grew up in a poor family; she was given a Catholic education. When she was 15, her family moved to Rome. Alberti has said that, although she hated the city at first sight, she eventually warmed to it. She attended Rome University and took a degree in philosophy.

Work

She aims to fight the traditional feminine image. Her works include the picaresque evil Memorie Malvagie to the meditative Vangelo secondo Maria, a stronger work tinged with humor and provocation such as Il signore è sevito, Povera bambina, Parliamo d'amore, Delirio e Gianna Nannini from Siena, both from 1991, and Il promesso sposo, a profile dedicated to the art critic Vittorio Sgarbi and presented in the guise of a "fake" autobiography.
A humorous production is La donna è un animale stravagante davvero: ottanta ritratti ingiusti e capricciosi, in which Alberti imaginged Don Giovanni beside some female figures of her generation. Her protagonists take on the same challenge: to find the happiness. Creatures in revolt: injudicious old, children of hell, hell, saints. She has been passionate about the fantastic biographies of existing characters, living and dead.
In 2003, Alberti published Gelosa di Mayakovsky, a biography of the poet, and The Prince's Steering Wheel, in which she told the life of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. In 2006 she authored a book of short stories about husbands returning home.
She is the author of many screenplays, including Anche gli angeli mangiano fagioli, Il portiere di notte and Melissa P., as well as plays Ecce Homo.
Since 2009, she has written a weekly column, "La posta di Barbara Alberti" in Il Fatto Quotidiano.
Alberti worked as commentator/pundit on television talk shows, including Pomeriggio 5, Italia sul 2 and La guardiana del faro.

Personal life

Alberti married producer and screenwriter Amedeo Pagani. They have two children, Gloria Samuela and Malcolm. They first married in London to please her father, then in the Abbey of Casamari in Ciociaria to please Pagani's mother as she did not know that about the London event, and for a third and last time "in the house of Ananias grandfather, my father's father, with lots of dancing on the threshing floor." Pagani left Alberti in the 1980s for Elisabetta Billi but returned to her fifteen years later because of the children. They never officially divorced and Alberti refers to him as "then-husband, now a dear relative".

Literary works