Born in Milan in the 1940s, Carpi began his career as a film critic for the newspapers Libera Stampa and L'Unità.

He returned to Italy in 1954, and until 1971, he was active as a screenwriter for notable directors such as Antonio Pietrangeli, Dino Risi, and Vittorio De Seta.

[2] He won a Nastro d'Argento for the screenplay of Nelo Risi's Diary of a Schizophrenic Girl [3]in 1971.

[4] After a 1968 documentary short, in 1972 Carpi made his feature film debut with the drama Corpo d'amore.

[2] His films were referred to as "figuratively accurate, literary, often metaphorical and difficult to understand", and "deep explorations of the human psyche".