Marco Ferreri (1928-1997) was one of Italian cinema's boldest auteurs. A maverick personality, he worked with some of the most popular actors of the time (Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu, Ugo Tognazzi, Carroll Baker, Roberto Benigni, Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Lambert and others), and directed internationally acclaimed films. His filmography includes The Conjugal Bed (1963), The Ape Woman (1964), Dillinger Is Dead (1969), the scandalous La Grande Bouffe (1973), the absurdist western Don't Touch the White Woman! (1974), The Last Woman (1976), Bye Bye Monkey (1978) and the Charles Bukowski adaptation Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981). Ferreri's cinema dealt in highly original ways with contemporary issues: the crisis of marriage, relationships between sexes, consumerism, and political disillusionment. His films were controversial and confronted censorship issues, leading to Ferreri's fame as a master provocateur.

This book examines Marco Ferreri's life and career, placing his work within the social and political context of postwar Italian culture, politics, and cinema. It includes a detailed production history and critical analysis of his films, with never-before-seen bits of information recovered from Italian ministerial archives and in-depth discussion of the director's unfilmed projects.