Dino Risi became a movie director by chance. In 1940 he met Alberto Lattuada at a friend’s boutique. Lattuada told him they needed an assistant director for the movie Le mariage de minuit (1941). Risi accepted just for fun, not for work. Later, he became a psychiatrist and wrote some articles for a local newspaper in his spare time. After the Second World War, he met a producer who financed his short films. One of these, Buio in sala (1950), was bought by Carlo Ponti. At that point, Risi decided to become a movie director. So he went to Rome and wrote the plot of Poor But Beautiful (1957) which made him famous. But the film that changed his life forever was Il Sorpasso (1962). At the opening night, Risi and producer Mario Cecchi Gori were waiting outside the movie theater. They were worried because no viewers had been coming to see the movie. So Risi went back home with much disappointment. However, the next day all the tickets were sold out and Risi became a star.