Director and Screenwriter. After studying painting in Brera (Milan), in 1946 he moved to Rome, where he became a screenwriter at Cinecittà for the works of Fernardo Cerchio and Viktor Tourjansky. Then he fits among the great directors of Italian cinema who have tackled social, political and civil issues (together with Francesco Rosi and Elio Petri), without putting the intermediate filters that give muffled or dreamlike visions. He made his directorial debut with the documentary "La banda d'Affori" (1947), then an immense block of his production and a resumption at the age of 39 with "Il rossetto" (1961), the story of a murder inspired by the true chronicle, which uses of the acting of the director Pietro Germi. He then continues, signing films such as, "Il sicario" (1961), "L'isola di Arturo" (1962) "Quién sabe?" (1967) starring Gian Maria Volonté which will become part of a trilogy of the Sixties and "Il Giorno della Civetta" (1968), based on the novel of the same name by Leonardo Sciascia. His filmography will then continue with "La rimpatriata" (1963) with Walter Chiari, Francisco Rabal, Riccardo Garrone and Gastone Moschin, a film that won the Fipresci prize. He will also have some small parentheses in horror, culminating with "Amityville Possession" (1982), but without a doubt, his best works remain, "Pizza Connection" (1985) and "L'inchiesta" (1987). The first (winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival), with Michele Placido, Simona Cavallari and Adriana Russo, tells the story of a Palermitan, a mafia killer in New York, who must return to Sicily to eliminate a magistrate. The second is a notable religious film starring Harvey Keitel as a Pilate subjected to an investigation by an official of the Emperor after the disappearance of the corpse of Jesus Christ. Intelligent and nonconformist, Damiani continues his career as if he were to catch up with the other directors (given his delay in the debut) with, "Il sole oscuro" (1989) and "L'angelo con la pistola" (1992). But very important, if not historical, was his television direction for the screenplays "La piovra" (1984) and "Il treno di Lenin" (1990). Obviously there is no shortage of great failures, which find their representative in "Alex l'Ariete" (2000), a film with former world ski champion Alberto Tomba and host Michelle Hunziker. Finally he stages the grotesque, choosing the international Carmen Maura and the more hidden Agnese Nano in "Assassini dei giorni di festa" (2002).