Born in Trevico, Italy, near Naples, on 10 May 1931. he studied law at the university of Rome and at the same time he worked as a writer and illustrator for several humour magazines. He also developed a passion for the cinematheque during these years. After writing comedy pieces for radio, he began his cinema career. He formed a writing partnership with Rugero Maccari. He quickly became a reputed scriptwriter of comedies. Scola himself embarked on film-directing in 1964 and was soon recognised as a creator of the most brilliant examples of Italian comedy, characterised by their peculiar blend of satire and social criticism and by their own particular themes, motives, anxieties and obsessions. Scola's films, in which we find ridicule of the Italian bourgeoisie and the Italian working class and in which all aspects of contemporary Italian society from politics to sex, tourism to feminism, are held up to pitiless derision, classified in any particular category, but are all products of a creative artist who has covered very considerable ground in his film career. Not content with his success as writer and director of Italian comedies, Scola transcended his satirical approach to open a new phase in his professional career as director with Una Giornata Particolare (1977), a film which heralded a new, highly personal approach. His later films were studies of Italians dealing with their history and social environment. Examining the past to interpret the present has continued to be the main theme of Scola's cinema. Scola, who began his career as a scriptwriter of very modest comedies, is now recognised as one of the most brilliant and original directors of contemporary Italian cinema and a true master whose eagerly anticipated each new film awakes the keenest interest and gives rise to wide-ranging social and historical associations.