Marco Ferreri

Former production manager on Italian films of the early 1950s who began his directing career in Spain. Ferreri's films are characterized by an absurd, misanthropic sense of humor as exemplified in his award-winning "The Wheelchair" (1959), in which a grandfather torments his family until they buy him an electric wheelchair for which he has no need. His exposes of contemporary middle-class mores, and especially sexual relations, continued through the 1960s and 70s with films such as "Queen Bee" (1963), "Dillinger Is Dead" (1968)--considered his masterpiece by most critics--and the notorious "La Grande Bouffe" (1973), in which a group of bored individuals literally eat themselves to death. Ferreri gave a memorable performance as the deaf, murderous art collector in Mario Monicelli's "Casanova '70" (1965).