Castellano & Pipolo

Castellano & Pipolo is the stage name used by the pair of Italian screenwriters and film directors Franco Castellano^[1][2] (1925–1999) and Giuseppe Moccia^[2] (1933–2006). Together, they wrote the screenplays for about seventy films, and directed twenty films, mainly comedies.^[3][4] Their 1984 film Il ragazzo di campagna was shown as part of a retrospective on Italian comedy at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.^[5]

Franco Castellano
Born	Franco Castellano 20 June 1925 Rome, Lazio, Italy
Died	28 December 1999(1999-12-28) (aged 74) Rome, Lazio, Italy
Occupation(s)	Film director, screenwriter

Giuseppe Moccia
Born	Giuseppe Moccia 22 June 1933 Rome, Lazio, Italy
Died	20 August 2006(2006-08-20) (aged 73) Rome, Lazio, Italy
Occupation(s)	Film director, screenwriter

Biography

They met in the second half of the 1950s in the editorial staff of Marc'Aurelio a well-known satirical newspaper of the time. Castellano, a failed engineer, and Pipolo, a banker, thus found themselves drawing humorous cartoons in the same newspaper that saw the formation of Federico Fellini and Ettore Scola, among others.

Thus was born a solid friendship and an artistic partnership that would last for more than 40 years. His debut in cinema was at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, with various subjects and screenplays including Totòtruffa 62 with Totò; Il federale and La voglia matta with Ugo Tognazzi. During the same period on television they signed some historical varieties such as Studio Uno (TV series); Scala reale; Johnny Sera; Che domenica amici as well as various Canzonissime. In 1975 they conceived and scripted the television miniseries Quello della porta accanto (The One Next Door), starring Ric e Gian. In the late 1970s they momentarily abandoned TV to return to the movies, this time also as directors, signing several commercially successful films such as The Country Boy; The Taming of the Shrew; Crazy in Love; Velvet Hands; and Grand Hotel Excelsior. In the mid-1980s they returned to television by directing Adriano Celentano's Fantastico (TV program).

Finally they collaborated on Fantastico (TV program) with Enrico Montesano. During their careers they wrote almost one hundred films, twenty of which they directed (always as a couple except Pipolo's last, Panarea), as well as the lyrics for many television shows and various songs, such as the famous La notte è piccola, launched in 1965 by the Kessler Twins."All their films were directed by the pair on alternate days. One day Castellano directed, the next day Pipolo, and so on. The different needs of the directors often left the actors disoriented" (quoting Angelo Infanti).

Their sons Federico Moccia and Lorenzo Castellano also followed in their fathers' footsteps. Both became directors and screenwriters, later they even directed as a couple, like their fathers, the television series College (1990) starring Federica Moro, which aired and was repeatedly repeated on Italia 1.

In Rome on Jan. 21, 2025 in the park of the Municipio III in the green area located in Via Renato Fucini, in front of house number 260, Roma Capitale dedicated a plaque to the duo Castellano and Pipolo, with a ceremony to unveil the toponymic plaque. The request to dedicate a street originated from a motion presented in the Julius Caesar Chamber by Hon. Marco Di Stefano Group Leader of Noi Moderati in the Capitoline Assembly, and approved by an overwhelming majority.^[6]

Selected filmography

• My Wife's Enemy (1959)
• Tipi da spiaggia (1959)
• Guardatele ma non toccatele (1959)
• Signori si nasce (1960)
• Toto, Fabrizi and the Young People Today (1960)
• The Fascist (1961)
• 5 marines per 100 ragazze (1962)
• Obiettivo ragazze (1963)
• The Thursday (1963)
• I due pericoli pubblici (1964)
• Slalom (1965)
• The Man, the Woman and the Money (1965)
• I nuovi mostri (1977)
• Mia moglie è una strega (1980)
• Il ragazzo di campagna (1984)