Francesco Rosi | |
|---|---|
 Rosi at theCannes Film Festival, 1991 | |
| Born | (1922-11-15)15 November 1922 Naples, Kingdom of Italy |
| Died | 10 January 2015(2015-01-10) (aged 92) Rome, Italy |
| Alma mater | University of Naples |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1948–1997 |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards | Golden Lion (1963) Palm d'Or (1972) Honorary Golden Bear (2008) Golden Lion (2012, career) |
Francesco Rosi (Italian:[franˈtʃeskoˈrɔːzi]; 15 November 1922 – 10 January 2015) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. His filmThe Mattei Affair won thePalme d'Or at the1972 Cannes Film Festival. Rosi's films, especially those of the 1960s and 1970s, often appeared to have political messages, while the topics of his later films became less politically oriented and more angled toward literature. He made his debut with his first self-directed film in 1958 and continued to direct until 1997, his last film being the adaptation ofPrimo Levi's book,The Truce.
In 2008, 13 of his films were screened at theBerlin International Film Festival. He received theHonorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement, accompanied by the screening of his 1962 filmSalvatore Giuliano. In 2012 theVenice Biennale awarded Rosi theGolden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
Rosi was born inNaples in 1922.[1] His father worked in the shipping industry, but was also a cartoonist and had, at one time, been reprimanded for his satirical drawings ofBenito Mussolini andKing Vittorio Emmanuel III.[2]
During theSecond World War Rosi went to college alongsideGiorgio Napolitano who was to becomeItalian President.[3] He studied law and then embarked on a career as an illustrator of children's books.[2] At the same time he began working as a reporter forRadio Napoli [it].[4] There he became friendly withRaffaele La Capria,Aldo Giuffrè andGiuseppe Patroni Griffi, with each of whom he would later often collaborate.[5]
His show business career began in 1946 as an assistant toEttore Giannini for the stage production of a work bySalvatore Di Giacomo.[6] He then entered the film industry and worked as an assistant toLuchino Visconti onLa Terra Trema ("The Earth Trembles", 1948) andSenso ("Sense", 1954). He wrote several screenplays, includingBellissima ("Beautiful", 1951) andThe City Stands Trial ("Processo alla città", 1952), and shot a few scenes of the filmRed Shirts ("Camicie rosse", 1952) byGoffredo Alessandrini. In 1956 he co-directed, withVittorio Gassman, the filmKean – Genio e sregolatezza ("Kean – Genius and recklessness"), about the Shakespearean actorEdmund Kean.[7]
His emergence as a director was his 1958 filmLa sfida (The Challenge), based on the story ofCamorra bossPasquale Simonetti, known asPasquale 'e Nola, andPupetta Maresca.[8] The realist nature of this film caused a stir in alluding to mafia control of the government.[citation needed] Of the film, Rosi himself said, "A director makes his first film with passion and without regard for what has gone before". ButDavid Shipman comments "... but this is in fact a reworking ofLa Terra Trema, with theVisconti arias replaced byZavattini's naturalism."[9]
The following year he directedThe Magliari ("I magliari"), in which the main character, an Italian immigrant in Germany, travels between Hamburg and Hanover and clashes with aNeapalitanmafioso boss over control of the fabric market. Shipman writes:
I magliari (1959) also concerns racketeers, and they are rival con-men (Alberto Sordi,Renato Salvatori) preying on their compatriots, immigrant workers in Germany. Sordi, like the protagonist inLa sfida, manages to antagonise his colleagues more than his rivals – and this was to be a continuing theme in Rosi's films. For the moment it means that both films end dispiritedly, and they are further weakened by an uncertain grasp of narrative – though that is partly hidden in the vigorous handling of individual scenes and the photography ofGianni Di Venanzo.[9]
Rosi was one of the central figures of the politicised post-neorealist 1960s and 1970s of Italian cinema, along withGillo Pontecorvo,Pier Paolo Pasolini, theTaviani brothers,Ettore Scola andValerio Zurlini. Dealing with a corrupt postwar Italy, Rosi's movies take on controversial issues, such asSalvatore Giuliano, a film that won theSilver Bear for Best Director at the12th Berlin International Film Festival in 1962.[10] The film examined the life of the Sicilian gangsterGiuliano, using the technique of a long series of flashbacks. Shipman suggests that the film, with a "superb unity of the landscape and people of Sicily" ... "made Rosi's international reputation."[9]
In 1963 he directedRod Steiger in the filmHands over the City ("Le mani sulla città"), in which he denounced the collusion between the various government departments and the urban reconstruction programmes in Naples. The film was awarded theGolden Lion at theVenice Film Festival. The film, together withSalvatore Giuliano, is generally considered[by whom?] the first of his films concerning political issues, later to be expressed in the flexible and spontaneous acting ofGian Maria Volonté.[citation needed] Rosi himself explained the film's purpose: "What interests me passionately is how a character behaves in the relation to the collectivity of society. I'm not making a study of character but of society. To understand what a man is like in his private drama you must begin to understand him in his public life".[9]
InThe Moment of Truth ("Il momento della verità", 1965), Rosi changed what was planned as a documentary about Spain in to a film about bullfighter Miguel Marco Miguelin. Shipman comments: "The wide screen and colour footage of thecorrida were incomparably superior to those seen outside Spain hitherto."[9]
After this Rosi moved into the unfamiliar world of the movie fable withMore Than a Miracle (also titledCinderella Italian Style andHappily Ever After, Italian: "C'era una volta" – "Once Upon a Time ..."). The film starredSophia Loren andOmar Sharif, although Rosi had initially asked for the part to be played byMarcello Mastroianni.[11]
His 1970 filmMany Wars Ago ("Uomini contro") dealt with the futility of war, focusing on theTrentino Front of 1916–17 duringWorld War I, where Italian officers made unrealistic demands of the men under their command. It was based on the novelUn anno sull'altopiano byEmilio Lussu.[6][12][13][14] The lead is played byMark Frechette and the cost of the film was such that Rosi needed to secure Yugoslavian collaboration. Shipman writes: "The Alpine battlefield has been imaginatively and bloodily re-created, and photographed in steely colours byPasqualino De Santis, but Rosi's urge to say something important – doubtless intense after the last two films – resulted only in cliché: that military men are fanatics and war is hell."[9]
The years 1972 to 1976 cemented Rosi's reputation internationally[citation needed] as a director who dealt with controversial subjects such as the mysterious death of oil magnateEnrico Mattei (The Mattei Affair, 1972, which won thePalme d'Or atCannes Film Festival);[7] the political machinations around gangsterLucky Luciano (Lucky Luciano, 1974),[15] and corruption in the judiciary,Illustrious Corpses ("Cadaveri Eccellenti", 1976).[7] During the preparation ofThe Mattei Affair Rosi was in contact withMauro De Mauro, the Sicilian journalist murdered in mysterious circumstances for reasons which, it is suspected, included an investigation on behalf of Rosi, into the death of the president of the Italian state-owned oil and gas conglomerateEni.[7]
Lucky Luciano (1973) starred Gian Maria Volonté with Steiger in a sub-plot about another Italo-American.Edmond O'Brien featured as a UN man.Norman Mailer described the film as "the most careful, the most thoughtful, the truest, and the most sensitive to the paradoxes to a society of crime".[9]
In 1976 followedIllustrious Corpses ("Cadaveri eccellenti"), based on the novelEqual Danger byLeonardo Sciascia, withLino Ventura. The film is praised highly by Shipman, who describes it as: "a film so rich, so powerful and so absorbing that it leaves the spectator breathless. ... This is a film, rare in the history of cinema, in which location – as opposed to decor – is a character in its own right, commenting on the action." Writing inThe Observer,Russell Davies said, "Few directors select their shots with such flamboyant intelligence as this".[9]
In 1979 Rosi directedChrist Stopped at Eboli, based on thememoir of the same name byCarlo Levi, again with Volonté as the protagonist. It won the Golden Prize at the11th Moscow International Film Festival[16] and was to winBAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1983.[17] Rosi had been invited by the state-owned television serviceRAI to select a subject for filming, and the four-part television programme was cut into a 141-minute feature film which he described as "a journey through my own conscience". Shipman writes, "the film retains all the mystery of Rosi's best work – an enquiry where at least half the answers are withheld. In this enquiry there is a respect for the historical process, but the usual magisterial blend of art and dialectic is softened by a sympathy much deeper than that ofIl Momento Della Verità. The occasional self-conscious shot that we associate with peasantry cannot mar it."[9]
After another successful filmThree Brothers ("Tre fratelli", 1981), withPhilippe Noiret,Michele Placido andVittorio Mezzogiorno, Rosi wanted to film the novelThe Truce byPrimo Levi, but the writer's suicide, in April 1987, forced the cancellation of the project. The film was finally made in 1997. He directed a film adaptation ofCarmen (1984) withPlácido Domingo[18] and subsequently he worked onChronicle of a Death Foretold (1987), adapted from the novel byGabriel García Márquez, which starred Gian Maria Volonté,Ornella Muti,Rupert Everett,Anthony Delon andLucia Bosè. The film was shot inMompox,Colombia.[3]
In 1990 he directedThe Palermo Connection ("Dimenticare Palermo") withJim Belushi,Mimi Rogers,Vittorio Gassman, Philippe Noiret andGiancarlo Giannini. He then returned to the theatre direction with the comedies ofEduardo De Filippo:Napoli milionaria! [it],Le voci di dentro [it] andFilumena Marturano, all performed by Luca De Filippo.[19]
His last film as director was 1997'sThe Truce, based onholocaust survivor Levi's memoir, and starringJohn Turturro. Rosi described the film in a 2008 interview withVariety as being about "the return to life."[20]
In 2008 his 1963 filmHands over the City was included on theItalian Ministry of Cultural Heritage's100 Italian films to be saved, a list of 100 films that "have changed the collective memory of the country between 1942 and 1978."[21]
The 58th edition of theBerlin International Film Festival in 2008 played tribute to Rosi by screening 13 films in itsHomage section, a feature being reserved for film-makers of outstanding quality and achievement. He received theHonorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement on 14 February 2008, accompanied by the screening ofSalvatore Giuliano.[22]
In 2009 he was awarded theCavaliere della Legion d'Onore, in 2010 the "Golden Halberd" at theTrieste Film Festival and in May 2012 the Board of theVenice Biennale unanimously approved the proposal of its director Alberto Barber, to award Rosi theGolden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at its 69th show. Barber praised Rosi for his "absolute rigor in historic reconstruction, never making any compromises on a political or ethical level, combined with engaging storytelling and splendid visuals."[20][23]
On 27 October 2010 he became an honorary citizen ofMatelica, the birthplace ofEnrico Mattei, while in 2013, in the presence of the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage Massimo Bra, he was given the honorary citizenship ofMatera, where he had shot three of his films. In 2014 he took part in the filmBorn in the USE, co-produced byRenzo Rossellini and directed by Michele Dioma.
In the last part of his life he lived on the Via Gregoriana inRome near theSpanish Steps. In April 2010, his wife Giancarla Mandelli died.
Rosi died on 10 January 2015 at the age of 92,[7][24] whilst at home, as a result of complications frombronchitis.[20]
A memorial service was held in Rome on 10 January with theviewing of the body taking place at the Casa del Cinema, and with many fellow Italian film-makers, including fellow directorGiuseppe Tornatore, in attendance. The President of ItalyGiorgio Napolitano, Rosi's friend from their schooldays sent roses. The directorGiuseppe Piccioni said Rosi's work gave Italy "identity and dignity" continuing, "Rosi was one of those artists who lived his work like a mission."[25]
DirectorPaolo Sorrentino dedicates his 2015 movieYouth with a simple end credit "For Francesco Rosi".
TheVariety Movie Guide says of Rosi: "Most films by Francesco Rossi probe well under the surface of people and events to establish a constant link between the legal and the illegal exercise of power."[15]
Writing Rosi's obituary inThe Guardian,David Robinson and John Francis Lane said:
In his best films, the director Francesco Rosi ... was essentially a crusading, investigative journalist concerned with the corruption and inequalities of the economically depressed Italian south. He believed that “the audience should not be just passive spectators”: he wanted to make people think and question.[7]
TheBritish Film Institute, recognising that Rosi had made historical films, war pictures and family dramas, in a directorial career that spanned almost four decades, said "he will be remembered above all as the master of the ‘cine-investigation’ and an influence on several generations of artists, including the likes ofMartin Scorsese,Francis Ford Coppola,Roberto Saviano andPaolo Sorrentino.[2]
Interviewed byThe New York Times after Rosi's death, actorJohn Turturro who played Primo Levi in Rosi's last filmThe Truce, called Rosi "something of a mentor". He said, "I would never have read all of Primo Levi’s work if not for him. There are a lot of films I never would have otherwise seen... He was a wonderful actor. He helped you physically as an actor. If he had trouble explaining something, he could act it out, and all the actors understood."[4]
Awarded byBritish Academy of Film and Television Arts:
Awarded at theCannes Film Festival:
TheNastro d'Argento, awarded by the Sindacato Nazionale Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani:
Awarded at theBerlin International Film Festival:
Italy * 1995:Cavaliere di gran croce dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica ItalianaItaly * 1987:Grande ufficiale dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana
France * 2009:Officier de la Légion d'honneurRosi directed 20 films, starting with some scenes inGoffredo Alessandrini'sRed Shirts. His last film wasThe Truce in 1997.[27]
