Francesco Rosi  

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Francesco Rosi (15 November 1922 – 10 January 2015) was an Italian film director. He is the father of actress Carolina Rosi. His film The Mattei Affair won the Palme d'Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.

Biography

After initially studying Law while hoping to study film, Rosi entered the film industry as an assistant to Luchino Visconti on La Terra trema (1948). He made his debut as a director with the film Camicie Rosse (Red Shirts). This was a project that he took over from leading director Goffredo Alessandrini after he withdrew from production in 1952. It was considered a promising start for the young director. His true emergence as a director is considered to be his 1958 film La Sfida (The Challenge). The realist nature of this film also caused a stir alluding to mafia control of the government.

Throughout the 1960's Rosi made films that centre around controversial issues, starting with Salvatore Giuliano, a film that won him won the Silver Bear award for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1962.

In 1965 his Momento della Verità (Moment of Truth) tells the story of Miguel, a boy who eventually becomes a bullfighter and dies in this deadly profession. This film articulates the dangers to the animals and the matadors in this deadly sport. The film, however, is considered to be a mediocre effort from Rosi.

From the years 1972 to 1976 Rosi made three films that are considered to be responsible for his emergence as a great director. The first was Il Caso Mattei (Mattei Affair) in 1972 which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival, followed by A proposito Lucky Luciano (Lucky Luciano) in 1974 and Cadaveri Eccellenti (Illustrious Corpses) in 1976. This four year span of film making cemented Rosi's reputation internationally as a director.

Rosi's films always appear to have political messages, especially his aforementioned work in the 1960s and 1970s. As he matured as a director his topics for films became less politically oriented and more angled toward literature. Despite the more traditional slant of his later work, Rosi continued to direct until 1997.

The 58th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival in 2008 played tribute to Francesco Rosi by screening 13 films in its Homage section, the latter being reserved to filmmakers of outstanding quality and achievement. He received the Golden Bear (award) for Lifetime Achievement on February 14, 2008, accompanied with the screening of Salvatore Giuliano.

Filmography

• Redshirts (1952)
• Kean (1956)
• The Challenge or La Sfida (1958)
• The Magliari (1959)
• Salvatore Giuliano (1962)
• Hands Over the City (1963)
• The Moment of Truth (1965)
• More than a Miracle (1967)
• Many Wars Ago (1970)
• The Mattei Affair (1972)
• Lucky Luciano (1974)
• Cadaveri eccellenti (1976)
• Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979)
• Three Brothers (1981)
• Carmen (1984)
• Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987)
• 12 registi per 12 città (1989, a collaboration work with 11 other directors)
• Palermo (1990)
• Neapolitan Diary (1992)
• The Truce (1997)