Attilio Prevost

He had no children, but adopted Annamaria, the niece of his wife, the only heir who had lived with his grandparents since 1935.

In January 1919 Elena, a free and courageous woman, endowed with an entrepreneurial spirit and a determined character, anticipating the times and going beyond the conventions in which women had been trapped for centuries, founded the Company Elena Lanzoni Films for the trade of cinematographic films. The Company was based in Milan in via Boccaccio 45, and had correspondents in Athens, Barcelona, Lima, London, Moscow, Buenos Aires, Paris, Cairo and Rio de Janeiro.

In 1915 Attilio Prevost founded in Milan the film production company "Astra Film", for which he produced the first silent movies and worked as a photographer ("Il Vortice", "L'ombra misteriosa", "Sogno di Riette", "Sulla soglia della felicità", all of 1915) while Elena ensued management. In the same period Attilio was also director of the production company from Milan "Sabaudo Film".

He's remembered for having designed and built, in the Twenties, the world's first cinematographic editing table with a horizontal work plane (aka Moviola), which became the standard in Europe, unlike the previous American "vertical" Moviola. He also founded in Milan, in about 1913, the company Officine Prevost, producer of cinematographic equipment. He shared ownership of the social capital with his wife Elena Lanzoni Prevost who administered the company. The great director Orson Welles ordered his first Prevost moviola in 1936.