Alberto Moravia (Italian pronunciation: [al'berto mo'ra:vja]; November 28, 1907 - September 26, 1990), born Alberto Pincherle, was an Italian novelist and journalist. His novels explored matters of modern sexuality, social alienation and existentialism. Moravia is best known for his debut novel Gli indifferenti (1929) and for the anti-fascist novel Il Conformista (The Conformist), the basis for the film The Conformist (1970) directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. Other novels of his adapted for the cinema are Agostino, filmed with the same title by Mauro Bolognini in 1962; Il disprezzo (A Ghost at Noon or Contempt), filmed by Jean-Luc Godard as Le Mepris (Contempt 1963); La Noia (Boredom), filmed with that title by Damiano Damiani in 1963 and released in the US as The Empty Canvas in 1964 and La ciociara, filmed by Vittorio de Sica as Two Women (1960).

In 1960, Moravia published La Noia (Boredom or The Empty Canvas), the story of the troubled sexual relationship between a young, rich painter striving to find sense in his life and an easygoing girl in Rome. Becoming known as one of his most famous novels, it won the Viareggio Prize. An adaptation was filmed by Damiano Damiani in 1962. Another adaptation of the book is the basis of Cedric Kahn's film L'ennui (The Ennui, 1998). Several films were based on his other novels: in 1960, Vittorio De Sica adapted La Ciociara, starring Sophia Loren; in 1963 Jean-Luc Godard filmed Il Disprezzo (Contempt) and in 1964, Francesco Maselli filmed Gli Indifferenti (1964). In 1962, Moravia and Elsa Morante parted; he went to live with the young writer Dacia Maraini and concentrated on theatre. In 1966, he, Maraini and Enzo Siciliano founded Il Porcospino, which staged works by Moravia, Maraini, Carlo Emilio Gadda and others. In 1967 Moravia visited China, Japan and Korea. In 1971 he published the novel Io e lui (I and He or The Two of Us) about a screenwriter, his independent penis and the situations to which he thrusts them and the essay Poesia e romanzo (Poetry and Novel). In 1972 he went to Africa, which inspired his work A quale tribu appartieni? (Which Tribe Do You Belong To?), published in the same year. His 1982 trip to Japan, including a visit to Hiroshima, inspired a series of articles for L'Espresso magazine about the atomic bomb. The same theme is in the novel L'Uomo che Guarda (The Man Who Looks, 1985) and the essay L'Inverno Nucleare (The Nuclear Winter), including interviews with some contemporary principal scientists and politicians. The short story collection, La Cosa e altri racconti (The Thing and Other Stories), was dedicated to Carmen Llera, his new companion (forty-five years his junior), whom he married in 1986. In 1984, Moravia was elected to the European Parliament as member from the Italian Communist Party. His experiences at Strasbourg, which ended in 1988, are recounted in Il Diario Europeo (The European Diary). In 1985 he won the title of European Personality. Moravia was a perennial contender to the Nobel Prize in Literature, having been nominated 13 times between 1949 and 1965. In September 1990, Alberto Moravia was found dead in the bathroom of his Lungotevere apartment, in Rome. In that year, Bompani published his autobiography, Vita di Moravia (Life of Moravia). CANNOTANSWER

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