Francesco Rosi

1.1. Early Life and Education

Francesco Rosi was born in Naples, Italy, on November 15, 1922. His father was involved in the shipping industry but also pursued a passion as a cartoonist, notably receiving reprimands for his satirical drawings targeting Benito Mussolini and King Vittorio Emmanuel III. During the Second World War, Rosi attended college alongside Giorgio Napolitano, who would later become the President of Italy. Rosi initially pursued legal studies, a background that perhaps influenced his later cinematic investigations into justice and power structures.

1.2. Early Career

After his legal studies, Rosi embarked on a diverse early career that laid the groundwork for his future in cinema. He began as an illustrator of children's books and simultaneously worked as a reporter for Radio Napoli^Italian. During this period, he formed significant friendships and collaborations with individuals who would become prominent figures in Italian arts, including Raffaele La Capria, Aldo Giuffrè, and Giuseppe Patroni Griffi.

His entry into the entertainment industry commenced in 1946 as an assistant to Ettore Giannini for a stage production of a work by Salvatore Di Giacomo. Rosi then transitioned into the film industry, where he gained invaluable experience as an assistant director to the acclaimed neorealist filmmaker Luchino Visconti. He assisted Visconti on seminal films such as La Terra Trema (1948), an influential work of Italian neorealism, and Senso (1954). Beyond assisting, Rosi also contributed as a screenwriter, notably on Bellissima (1951) and The City Stands Trial (1952). In 1952, he also shot several scenes for Goffredo Alessandrini's film Red Shirts. His early directorial ventures included co-directing Kean - Genio e sregolatezza (1956) with Vittorio Gassman, a film about the Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean.

2.1. Early Directorial Works

Rosi's emergence as a solo director began with his 1958 film, The Challenge (La sfida^Italian). This film was based on the true story of Camorra boss Pasquale Simonetti, known as 'Pasquale 'e Nola', and Pupetta Maresca. Its realist portrayal of organized crime stirred considerable discussion, particularly for its implicit allusions to mafia influence on government. Rosi himself described his approach to a debut film as one made "with passion and without regard for what has gone before." However, film critic David Shipman observed that The Challenge was a "reworking of La Terra Trema", with the dramatic elements of Visconti's style replaced by the naturalism of Cesare Zavattini. The film earned Rosi the Jury Special Prize and the San Giorgio Prize at the 1958 Venice Film Festival.

The following year, Rosi directed The Magliari (I magliari^Italian, 1959). This film centered on an Italian immigrant in Germany who travels between Hamburg and Hanover, becoming entangled in a conflict with a Neapolitan mafioso boss over control of the fabric market. Shipman noted that The Magliari also concerned racketeers, specifically "rival con-men" played by Alberto Sordi and Renato Salvatori, who prey on their fellow immigrant workers in Germany. Shipman further commented that Sordi's character, similar to the protagonist in The Challenge, managed to antagonize his colleagues more than his rivals, a theme that would recur in Rosi's later films. Both The Challenge and The Magliari conclude on a dispirited note, and Shipman suggested they were "further weakened by an uncertain grasp of narrative," though this was partially masked by the "vigorous handling of individual scenes and the photography of Gianni Di Venanzo."

2.2. Political and Social Critique Films

Rosi became a central figure of the politicized post-neorealist era of Italian cinema in the 1960s and 1970s. He stood alongside other prominent directors such as Gillo Pontecorvo, Pier Paolo Pasolini, the Taviani brothers, Ettore Scola, and Valerio Zurlini. His films consistently tackled controversial issues stemming from the corrupt landscape of postwar Italy, using cinema as a tool for social investigation.

One of his most significant works from this period was Salvatore Giuliano (1962), which explored the life of the infamous Sicilian gangster Salvatore Giuliano. Rosi employed a distinctive technique of long, fragmented flashbacks to examine the mysterious circumstances surrounding Giuliano's death and the political forces at play. The film earned Rosi the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 12th Berlin International Film Festival and, according to Shipman, with its "superb unity of the landscape and people of Sicily," it "made Rosi's international reputation."

In 1963, Rosi directed Hands over the City (Le mani sulla città^Italian), starring Rod Steiger. This film directly denounced the collusion between various government departments and urban reconstruction programs in his native Naples. It was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Hands over the City, along with Salvatore Giuliano, is widely considered the first of his films to explicitly address political issues, often featuring the flexible and spontaneous acting of Gian Maria Volonté. Rosi articulated the film's purpose, stating, "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."

The years 1972 to 1976 solidified Rosi's international reputation as a director who fearlessly tackled contentious subjects. This period includes The Mattei Affair (Il caso Mattei^Italian, 1972), which investigated the mysterious death of oil magnate Enrico Mattei and won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. During the film's preparation, Rosi was in contact with Mauro De Mauro, a Sicilian journalist who was murdered under mysterious circumstances. It is suspected that De Mauro's investigation into the death of the president of the Italian state-owned oil and gas conglomerate Eni, conducted on behalf of Rosi, may have contributed to his demise.

Rosi continued his exploration of power and crime with Lucky Luciano (1974), which examined the political machinations surrounding the gangster Lucky Luciano. The film starred Gian Maria Volonté, with Rod Steiger in a subplot about another Italo-American, and Edmond O'Brien as a UN official. Author Norman Mailer praised the film as "the most careful, the most thoughtful, the truest, and the most sensitive to the paradoxes to a society of crime."

His 1976 film, Illustrious Corpses (Cadaveri eccellenti^Italian), focused on corruption within the judiciary. Based on the novel Equal Danger by Leonardo Sciascia, it starred Lino Ventura. Shipman highly lauded the film, describing 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 in The Observer, Russell Davies remarked, "Few directors select their shots with such flamboyant intelligence as this."

2.3. Films on War, Literature, and Other Themes

Beyond his direct political critiques, Rosi explored other significant themes, including the futility of war and adaptations of literary works.

In The Moment of Truth (Il momento della verità^Italian, 1965), Rosi shifted from an initial plan for a documentary about Spain to a film focusing on the bullfighter Miguel Marco Miguelin. Shipman commented on the film's visual impact, stating, "The wide screen and colour footage of the corrida were incomparably superior to those seen outside Spain hitherto."

Rosi then ventured into the realm of the movie fable with More Than a Miracle (also known as Cinderella Italian Style or Happily Ever After, C'era una volta...^Italian, 1967). The film starred Sophia Loren and Omar Sharif, although Rosi had initially sought Marcello Mastroianni for the lead role.

His 1970 film, Many Wars Ago (Uomini contro^Italian), addressed the futility of war, specifically focusing on the Trentino Front of 1916-17 during World War I. The narrative depicted Italian officers making unrealistic demands of their soldiers. Based on the novel Un anno sull'altopiano by Emilio Lussu, the film starred Mark Frechette and required Yugoslavian collaboration due to its significant cost. While the Alpine battlefield was "imaginatively and bloodily re-created" and photographed in "steely colours" by Pasqualino De Santis, Shipman critiqued that Rosi's intense desire to convey an important message "resulted only in cliché: that military men are fanatics and war is hell."

In 1979, Rosi directed Christ Stopped at Eboli (Cristo si è fermato a Eboli^Italian), based on the acclaimed memoir of the same name by Carlo Levi. Starring Gian Maria Volonté as the protagonist, the film won the Golden Prize at the 11th Moscow International Film Festival and the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1983. Rosi was invited by the state-owned television service RAI to select a subject for filming; the four-part television program was subsequently cut into a 141-minute feature film, which Rosi described as "a journey through my own conscience." Shipman praised the film, noting, "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 of Il Momento Della Verità. The occasional self-conscious shot that we associate with peasantry cannot mar it."

Following another successful film, Three Brothers (Tre fratelli^Italian, 1981), starring Philippe Noiret, Michele Placido, and Vittorio Mezzogiorno, Rosi initially planned to film the novel The Truce by Primo Levi. However, Levi's suicide in April 1987 led to the project's cancellation at the time, though it was eventually realized in 1997. Rosi directed a film adaptation of Carmen (1984) with Plácido Domingo. Subsequently, he worked on Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987), adapted from the novel by Gabriel García Márquez, which featured an ensemble cast including Gian Maria Volonté, Ornella Muti, Rupert Everett, Anthony Delon, and Lucia Bosè. The film was shot in Mompox, Colombia.

In 1990, he directed The Palermo Connection (Dimenticare Palermo^Italian), starring Jim Belushi, Mimi Rogers, Vittorio Gassman, Philippe Noiret, and Giancarlo Giannini. His final film as a director was 1997's The Truce (La tregua^Italian), based on Holocaust survivor Primo Levi's memoir, starring John Turturro. Rosi described the film in a 2008 interview with Variety as being about "the return to life."

2.4. Theatre Direction

Francesco Rosi also made significant contributions to theatre as a director. His stage career began early, in 1946, as an assistant to Ettore Giannini. Later in his career, he returned to theatre direction, notably staging comedies by the renowned Neapolitan playwright Eduardo De Filippo. These productions included Napoli milionaria!, Le voci di dentro, and Filumena Marturano, all performed by Luca De Filippo. He also directed In Memory of a Lady Friend by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi in 1963.

5.1. Major Film Festival Awards

Rosi was celebrated at the world's most prestigious film festivals:

• Cannes Film Festival**: He was awarded the coveted Palme d'Or in 1972 for his investigative drama The Mattei Affair.
• Venice Film Festival**: Rosi received the Golden Lion in 1963 for Hands over the City. Decades later, in 2012, the Venice Biennale honored him with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, with its director Alberto Barber praising 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." He also received the Jury Special Prize and the San Giorgio Prize for The Challenge in 1958.
• Berlin International Film Festival**: In 1962, Rosi won the Silver Bear for Best Director for Salvatore Giuliano. In 2008, the 58th Berlin International Film Festival paid tribute to Rosi by screening 13 of his films in its 'Homage' section, an honor reserved for filmmakers of outstanding quality. He was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement on February 14, 2008, accompanied by a screening of Salvatore Giuliano.
• Moscow International Film Festival**: His film Christ Stopped at Eboli was awarded the Grand Prix (Golden Prize) in 1979.

5.2. Other Film Awards

Rosi's films garnered numerous other significant awards, reflecting his consistent critical acclaim:

• BAFTA Awards**:
  • 1983: BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film - Christ Stopped at Eboli
  • 1986: Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film - Carmen
• David di Donatello Awards**:
  • 1965: Best Director - The Moment of Truth
  • 1976: Best Director and Best Film - Illustrious Corpses
  • 1979: Best Director and Best Film - Christ Stopped at Eboli
  • 1981: Best Director and Best Screenplay - Three Brothers
  • 1985: Best Director, Best Film, and Best Cinematography - Carmen
  • 1997: Best Film and Best Director - The Truce
• Silver Ribbon (Nastro d'Argento)**:
  • 1959: Best Original Film - The Challenge
  • 1963: Best Director - Salvatore Giuliano
  • 1981: Best Director - Three Brothers
  • 2014: Lifetime Achievement Award
• Academy Awards**:
  • 1981: Nomination for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film - Three Brothers
• BIF (Bari International Film Festival)**:
  • 2010: "Premio Federico Fellini" for artistic excellence
• Boston Film Critics Association Award**:
  • 1981: Foreign Language Film - Tre fratelli

5.3. Honours and Lifetime Achievements

Beyond film-specific awards, Rosi received various national and civic honors:

• Order of Merit of the Italian Republic**:
  • 1987: Grande Ufficiale dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana
  • 1995: Cavaliere di Gran Croce dell'Ordine al merito della Repubblica Italiana
• Legion of Honour**:
  • 2009: Officier de la Légion d'honneur (Officer of the Legion of Honour)
• "Golden Halberd"**: Awarded at the Trieste Film Festival in 2010.
• Honorary Citizenships**:
  • 2010: Became an honorary citizen of Matelica, the birthplace of Enrico Mattei.
  • 2013: Received honorary citizenship of Matera, where he had shot three of his films, in the presence of the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage.