Raimondo Del Balzo
Raimondo Del Balzo (17 January 1939 – 22 September 1995) was an Italian screenwriter and director.
Born in Rome, Del Balzo first worked as a journalist and then entered the cinema industry in 1967 as a screenwriter.[1] In 1973 he had a large commercial success with his directorial debut film, The Last Snows of Spring, a success confirmed by his second work, White Horses of Summer.[1] These films launched a melodramatic subgenre known as "lacrima movie" (i.e. "tearjerker movie"), usually characterized by plots involving unfortunate children and fatal diseases.[2] A strong sentimentalism was his trademark also in his later works, which indeed disappointed at the box office.[1] Del Balzo died of cancer, as did the main characters of his first two films.[3]