Skip to main content

Cinema Greats- Giuseppe Rotunno and Franco Zeffirelli honored this week

The beauty of Italian cinema is that its past continues to flourish while new filmmakers emerge creating their own masterpieces. When I talk to contemporary filmmakers, they give credit to their predecessors, acknowledging and respecting the foundation those maestros painstakingly built.

This weekend, two beautiful stories have come out of Italy paying tribute to two icons of the past and the really special part of this is that both filmmakers are still living and very involved with the new generation of Italian filmmakers.

The 2015 Masters of Light at TDC is celebrating legendary cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno with screenings of five of his films "illustrating his artistry and genius" .. and the announcement of a museum dedicated to the work of Franco Zeffirelli was just made in his hometown of Florence.


Giuseppe Rotunno

Rotunno is one of the most prominent cinematographers of all time. Throughout the decades, he has collaborated on great masterpieces of cinema alongside directors such as Federico Fellini, Mario Monicelli, Luchino Visconti, and Terry Gilliam. The first film he worked on goes back to 1943, as a camera assistant on “L’uomo dalla Croce” (The Man With a Cross) by Roberto Rossellini.  In 1956, he made his debut as a cinematographer working alongside director Carmine Gallone on “Tosca” followed by “Le notti bianche” by Luchino Visconti and “Montecarlo” by Sam Taylor.

At the end of the 1950s, Rotunno shot "La grande guerra" (The Great War) by Mario Monicelli and "Policarpo, ufficiale di scrittura” (Policarpo, official writing) by Mario Soldati, for which he was awarded both Best Black & White Cinematography and Best Color Cinematography at the 1960 Nastri D'Argento Awards.

The ‘60s proved to be an epic decade for Rotunno. He made an indelible mark on global cinema with iconic films like Visconti’s “Rocco e i suoi Fratelli” (Rocco and His Brothers) for which he won another Nastri D’Argento for Best Black & White Cinematography. 

He teamed up with Visconti for three more projects during that decade: “Boccaccio ‘70” in 1962, “Il Gattopardo” (The Leopard) in 1963 for which he won another Nastri D’Argento for Best Color Cinematography, and “Lo straniero” (The Stranger) in 1967. 

He also worked on Vittorio de Sica’s 1963 “Ieri, oggi, domani” (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow), John Huston’s 1966  “The Bible,” which earned him the prize for Best Cinematography at the David di Donatello Awards, and started his collaboration with Federico Fellini on “Toby Dammit” in 1968 followed by “Satyricon” for which Rotunno won another Bastri D’Argento Award for Best Color Cinematography.


Federico Fellini's Amarcord
The collaboration with Fellini continued on “Roma” (1972) “Amarcord” (1973), “Casanova” (1976), the musical satire “Prova d’orchestra” (Orchestra Rehearsal) (1978), "La città delle donne" (City of Women) (1980) and “E la nave va” (And the Ship Sails On) (1983).

Rotunno also served as cinematographer for Peter Del Monte's 1987 "Julia & Julia," the first feature film shot using high-definition television taping techniques, then transferred to 35mm film for a theatrical release.


In 1979, he earned an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography and won a BAFTA Award for his work on Bob Fosse's "All That Jazz."

For more than 20 years, Rotunno was the head of Cinematography at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Italy’s national film school, influencing new generations of Italian cinematographers.

In 1966, Rotunno was the first non-American cinematographer admitted to the ASC – American Society of Cinematographers. He also served as President of AIC – the Italian Society of Cinematographers, of which he was nominated an Honorary Member in 2014.

Franco Zeffirelli

Franco Zeffirelli was born Gianfranco Corsi on February 12, 1923, in Florence. He is a prolific filmmaker who has worked as a director, designer, and producer of opera, theater, film, and television. He is revered for his extravagant opera productions and film adaptations of Shakespeare.

Zeffirelli attended the University of Florence where he studied architecture, but while there he became involved with the school’s theatre company. His studies were interrupted by Germany’s occupation of Italy, and he became a Partisan, serving as an interpreter for the Scots Guard. When the war was over, he went to Rome to pursue a career in theatre.

In 1946, he joined Luchino Visconti’s Morelli-Stoppa Company as an actor and stage director. After working with Visconti on the 1948 "La terra trema" (The Earth Trembles) and other films, Zeffirelli began to concentrate on stage design. His first major design for opera was a production (1952–53) of Gioachino Rossini’s "L’Italiana in Algeri" (The Italian Girl in Algiers) for La Scala in Milan. He worked on a number of other opera and theatre productions—including the operas "La Traviata," "La Bohème," "Tosca," "Falstaff" and "Carmen"—from the 1950s through the beginning of the 21st century. 

He also began to direct films. Among his major films are three Shakespeare adaptations: a richly produced "The Taming of the Shrew" (1967), with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor; "Romeo and Juliet" (1968), in which he, for the first time, featured teenage actors in the title roles; and "Hamlet" (1990), with Mel Gibson. His later films include "Jane Eyre" (1996), "Tea with Mussolini" (1999), and "Callas Forever" (2002). He continued to film operas such as "I Pagliacci" (1981), "Cavalleria rusticana" (1982), "Otello" (1986), and "La Bohème" (2008), working in several roles, including director, producer, and costume designer.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New faces of Italian cinema

Angelo Iannelli With the 2012 film festivals just about wrapped up, we saw a big emphasis this year on newly emerging and independent filmmakers. This was most notable in the Venice Film Festival's Horizon's program, which gave these filmmakers an unprecedented amount of visibility as the program reached out to people all over the world via the internet.  To mark this current trend, I recently caught up with two independent filmmakers in Rome: Angelo Iannelli and Vito Napolitano. Each filmmaker has experience on both sides of the camera. Their origins are based in the south of Italy but they are now living in Rome. Angelo Iannelli was born in Benevento in the region of Campania, while Vito Napolitano is from Lecce in Puglia. What I enjoyed the most about our conversation is the passion with which the two young filmmakers speak about cinema. They are so enthusiastic and about their craft, they reel you right into their dreams. The three of us recently met up at the Li

The Timeless Talent of Stefania Sandrelli

On screen since the tender age of 14, she has captivated audiences for more than 50 years with a compelling combination of strength and vulnerability. She achieved stardom at just 14 years old playing the angelic cousin of a love-struck Marcello Mastroianni in Pietro Germi’s “Divorce Italian Style.” More than half a century later, she is still going strong and remains one of Italy’s most esteemed actors. Stefania Sandrelli was born on June 5, 1946, in Viareggio in the province of Lucca in northern Italy. As a child, she studied music and dance. Then in 1960, she won a beauty pageant and was featured on the cover of Le Ore magazine. Her purity captivated the country and shortly thereafter, movie offers began pouring in. Just one year later, she made her cinema debut in three feature films: Mario Sequi’s Gioventù di notte , Luciano Salce’s The Fascist, and Pietro Germi’s Divorce Italian Style . She instantly became a star and before long was a key figure in Italy’s legendary

Anna Foglietta: Actress and Activist with Old School Elegance

One look at actress Anna Foglietta in her any of her roles, and the Golden Age of Italian cinema comes to mind. Among Italy’s most sought-after actresses today, Foglietta brings to the table a classic eloquence of yesterday while representing Italy’s modern woman. Born in Rome in 1979, Foglietta began her career in 2005 with a role in the RAI television series La squadra . Her character Agent Anna De Luca had a two-year run on the series as she was transitioning to cinema with Paolo Virzì’s 2006 ensemble project 4-4-2- Il gioco più bello del mondo . Since then, she has become one of Italy’s most diverse actresses, transforming herself into interesting, layered characters for comedies and dramas alike. Aside from a small part in Anton Corbijn’s 2010 film The American starring George Clooney, Foglietta’s work began reaching mainstream American audiences in 2015. As Elisa in Edoardo Leo’s 2015 comedy Noi e la Giulia , Foglietta showed her funny side playing a goofball pregn

A Conversation with Actor Mirko Frezza of David di Donatello Winner "Il più grande sogno"

The 2017 David di Donatello award show, which took place on Monday, was an exciting event that celebrated many great contemporary talents of Italian cinema.  I was fortunate to have seen most of the nominees.  Among my personal favorites  is Michele Vannucci's  Il più grande sogno  simply because it is based on one of the most inspiring, beautiful stories I've ever  heard, and the person behind that story is as authentic and down-to-earth as they come. The film won the 3 Future Award, which is determined by the public. With Director Michele Vannucci and Actor Mirko Frezza I first saw  Il più grande sogno last September when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival. I didn't make it to Venice, but thanks to a great online platform called Festival Scope , which offers a handful of premieres to be screened on the web, I felt like I was there. The film itself blew me away, and then when I realized it was based on a true story, I knew that I would have to find out mor

Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren navigate dementia in Paolo Virzìs 'The Leisure Seeker'

“The Leisure Seeker” is Italian director Paolo Virzìs first English-language feature film. Starring Helen Mirren as Ella and Donald Sutherland as John, it follows a couple who leave town, traveling from Massachusetts to Florida, without informing anyone, including their two adult children. The kids find out about their departure when their son, Will, pays them a visit and is informed by the couple’s neighbor that she heard them depart very early in the morning in their 1975 Winnebago, which bears the name of the film’s title. Will then launches a hunt to find his parents and return them safely home, but Ella has other plans. She intends to take John, an intellectual and aficionado of Ernest Hemingway, to the Hemingway Home & Museum in Key West.   John is grappling with dementia and Ella, who copes with her sorrow by drinking a steady stream of whiskey, is clearly knocking on death’s door. “The Leisure Seeker” is a testament to their right to spend their final days as they wish — tr