Giorgio Rayzacher
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Born in Warsaw on September 26, 1947, to an Italian mother and a Polish father, Giorgio Rayzacher holds Italian, French, and Polish citizenship. He attended directing courses at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (CSC) in Rome and worked as a voluntary assistant to several renowned filmmakers, including Federico Fellini and Bernardo Bertolucci.
He made his directorial debut with the documentary Metilicon, produced by Giorgio Patara, following Bertolucci's interest in the project. He later wrote numerous screenplays and books as a ghostwriter, and also performed as a stage actor in Carmelo Bene's company.
In 1970, he directed his first fiction film for RAI, La Vendetta, which was broadcast in 1972. In 1998, he wrote, directed, and starred in the French medium-length thriller Raptus. Over the years, he created dozens of documentaries and more than 200 commercials around the world before devoting himself to literature.
His first novel, The Princess of Lyon, a suspense story exploring the Italian-Russian-Polish mafia connections, was published in France in 1997 and later in Poland by Philip Wilson under the title Ksiezniczka z Lyonu. In October 2004, his psychological thriller Chills (original French title Frissons), released in Poland as Dreszcze, achieved significant success with both readers and critics. His third novel, The Legend of a Nervous Man, was published in October 2007 during the Krakow Book Fair. Some Polish readers even proposed the author for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In 2018, his fourth novel, The Long Way to Eden, was published in Poland under the title Piekni, bogaci, perfidni.
Rayzacher also has an extensive acting career, often appearing under pseudonyms. He made a brief cameo in the Academy Award-winning film Cold War (2018), and in 2025 appeared again in a cameo role in Pawel Pawlikowski's 1949/Vaterland.
He writes, acts, and directs in Polish, French, and Italian.
He made his directorial debut with the documentary Metilicon, produced by Giorgio Patara, following Bertolucci's interest in the project. He later wrote numerous screenplays and books as a ghostwriter, and also performed as a stage actor in Carmelo Bene's company.
In 1970, he directed his first fiction film for RAI, La Vendetta, which was broadcast in 1972. In 1998, he wrote, directed, and starred in the French medium-length thriller Raptus. Over the years, he created dozens of documentaries and more than 200 commercials around the world before devoting himself to literature.
His first novel, The Princess of Lyon, a suspense story exploring the Italian-Russian-Polish mafia connections, was published in France in 1997 and later in Poland by Philip Wilson under the title Ksiezniczka z Lyonu. In October 2004, his psychological thriller Chills (original French title Frissons), released in Poland as Dreszcze, achieved significant success with both readers and critics. His third novel, The Legend of a Nervous Man, was published in October 2007 during the Krakow Book Fair. Some Polish readers even proposed the author for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
In 2018, his fourth novel, The Long Way to Eden, was published in Poland under the title Piekni, bogaci, perfidni.
Rayzacher also has an extensive acting career, often appearing under pseudonyms. He made a brief cameo in the Academy Award-winning film Cold War (2018), and in 2025 appeared again in a cameo role in Pawel Pawlikowski's 1949/Vaterland.
He writes, acts, and directs in Polish, French, and Italian.
