Gianni Amelio
Encyclopedia
Gianni Amelio is an Italian
film
director
.
, Calabria
. His father moved to Argentina
soon after his birth. He spent his youth and adolescence with his mother and his grandmother. The absence of a paternal figures will be a constant in Amelio's future works.
During his university studies of philosophy in Messina, Amelio got interested in cinema, writing as film critic for a local magazine. In 1965 he moved to Rome
, where he worked as operator
and assistant director for figures such as Liliana Cavani
and Vittorio De Seta
. He also worked for television, directing documentaries and advertisements.
Amelio's first important work is the TV film La città del sole, directed in 1973 for RAI TV and inspired to Tommaso Campanella
's work. This was followed by Bertolucci secondo il cinema (1976) a documentary about 1900
shooting, and the thriller Effetti speciali. Two years later he directed the mystery La morte al lavoro, which won prizes at Locarno
and Hyères
festivals. Il piccolo Archimede of 1979 was also critically acclaimed.
In 1982 he debuted for cinema proper with Colpire al cuore ("Shoot in the Heart"), about Italian terrorism, presented at the Venice Film Festival
. In 1987 Amelio released I ragazzi di via Panisperna
, about the lives of 1930 Italian physicists such as Enrico Fermi
and Edoardo Amaldi
, which won the award for best screenplay at the Bari
Film Festival. 1989's Porte aperte (Open Doors), featuring Gian Maria Volonté
, confirmed Amelio's status as one of Italy's best film directors and won a nomination as Best Foreign Film at 1991 Academy Awards. The film received also 4 Felix, 2 Silver Ribbon, 4 David di Donatello
and 3 Golden Globes awards.
Also successful was Il ladro di bambini (Stolen Children) in 1992, which won the Special Prize of Jury at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival
plus two Silver Ribbon and 5 David di Donatello. In 1994 Lamerica
, about Albanian immigration in Italy, repeated the fate and the success, with 2 Silver Ribbons and 3 Davids. Four years later, Così ridevano won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Amelio gained another Silver Ribbon as best director for Le chiavi di casa (The Keys to the House), inspired to a novel by Giuseppe Pontiggia
, of 2004.
Amelio was a member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival
in 1995. In 2006 he released his eight feature film, La stella che non c'è
, featuring Sergio Castellitto
. Since 2009, he is director of Torino Film Festival, Turin
.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
.
Biography
Amelio was born in San Pietro di Magisano, province of CatanzaroProvince of Catanzaro
The Province of Catanzaro is a province of the Calabria region, in Italy. The city of Catanzaro is capital both of the province and of the region.- Demographics :The following is a list of the province of Catanzaro comunes with population over 5,000:...
, Calabria
Calabria
Calabria , in antiquity known as Bruttium, is a region in southern Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian Peninsula. The capital city of Calabria is Catanzaro....
. His father moved to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
soon after his birth. He spent his youth and adolescence with his mother and his grandmother. The absence of a paternal figures will be a constant in Amelio's future works.
During his university studies of philosophy in Messina, Amelio got interested in cinema, writing as film critic for a local magazine. In 1965 he moved to Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, where he worked as operator
Operator (profession)
An operator is a professional designation used in various industries, including broadcasting , computing, customer service, physics, and construction. Operators are day-to-day end users of systems, that may or may not be mission-critical, but are typically managed and maintained by technicians or...
and assistant director for figures such as Liliana Cavani
Liliana Cavani
Liliana Cavani is an Italian film director and screenwriter. She belongs to a generation of Italian filmmakers that came into prominence in the 1970s and includes Bernardo Bertolucci, Pier Paolo Pasolini and Marco Bellochio. Cavani became internationally known after the success of her 1974 feature...
and Vittorio De Seta
Vittorio De Seta
Vittorio De Seta was an Italian cinema director and screenwriter, considered one of the Italian cinema's great imaginative realists of the Sixties.- Biography :...
. He also worked for television, directing documentaries and advertisements.
Amelio's first important work is the TV film La città del sole, directed in 1973 for RAI TV and inspired to Tommaso Campanella
Tommaso Campanella
Tommaso Campanella OP , baptized Giovanni Domenico Campanella, was an Italian philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet.-Biography:...
's work. This was followed by Bertolucci secondo il cinema (1976) a documentary about 1900
1900 (film)
1900 is a 1976 Italian epic film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci, starring Robert De Niro, Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Sanda, Donald Sutherland, Alida Valli, and Burt Lancaster. Set in Bertolucci's ancestral region of Emilia, the film chronicles the lives of two men during the political turmoils...
shooting, and the thriller Effetti speciali. Two years later he directed the mystery La morte al lavoro, which won prizes at Locarno
Locarno
Locarno is the capital of the Locarno district, located on the northern tip of Lake Maggiore in the Swiss canton of Ticino, close to Ascona at the foot of the Alps. It has a population of about 15,000...
and Hyères
Hyères
Hyères , Provençal Occitan: Ieras in classical norm or Iero in Mistralian norm) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France....
festivals. Il piccolo Archimede of 1979 was also critically acclaimed.
In 1982 he debuted for cinema proper with Colpire al cuore ("Shoot in the Heart"), about Italian terrorism, presented at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
. In 1987 Amelio released I ragazzi di via Panisperna
I ragazzi di via Panisperna
is an Italian movie by director Gianni Amelio, telling the enthusiasms, fears, joys and disappointments of the life of a well-known group of boys fond of physics and mathematics, who just made history as the Via Panisperna boys.-Plot:The story is inspired by a real life fact and set in the...
, about the lives of 1930 Italian physicists such as Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work on the development of the first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1, and for his contributions to the development of quantum theory, nuclear and particle physics, and statistical mechanics...
and Edoardo Amaldi
Edoardo Amaldi
Edoardo Amaldi was an Italian physicist.He was born in Carpaneto Piacentino, son of Ugo Amaldi, professor of mathematics at the University of Padua, and Luisa Basini....
, which won the award for best screenplay at the Bari
Bari
Bari is the capital city of the province of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, in Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy after Naples, and is well known as a port and university city, as well as the city of Saint Nicholas...
Film Festival. 1989's Porte aperte (Open Doors), featuring Gian Maria Volonté
Gian Maria Volontè
Gian Maria Volonté was an Italian actor. He is perhaps most famous outside of Italy for his roles as the main villain in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars and For a Few Dollars More.-Early life:Volonté was born in Milan, and graduated in Rome in 1957...
, confirmed Amelio's status as one of Italy's best film directors and won a nomination as Best Foreign Film at 1991 Academy Awards. The film received also 4 Felix, 2 Silver Ribbon, 4 David di Donatello
David di Donatello
David di Donatello, named after Donatello's David, is a movie award assigned each year for cinematic performances and production by Ente David di Donatello, part of Accademia del Cinema Italiano. It is the Italian equivalent to the Academy Award. There are 24 categories as of 2006.- History :The...
and 3 Golden Globes awards.
Also successful was Il ladro di bambini (Stolen Children) in 1992, which won the Special Prize of Jury at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival
1992 Cannes Film Festival
- Jury :*Gérard Depardieu *John Boorman *Carlo Di Palma *Jamie Lee Curtis *Joële Van Effenterre *Lester James Peries *Nana Djordjadze *Pedro Almodóvar *René Cleitman...
plus two Silver Ribbon and 5 David di Donatello. In 1994 Lamerica
Lamerica
-Plot:Gino and Fiore are Italian racketeers who come to Albania just after the fall of the communists to set up a fictive firm and pocket the grants....
, about Albanian immigration in Italy, repeated the fate and the success, with 2 Silver Ribbons and 3 Davids. Four years later, Così ridevano won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Amelio gained another Silver Ribbon as best director for Le chiavi di casa (The Keys to the House), inspired to a novel by Giuseppe Pontiggia
Giuseppe Pontiggia
Giuseppe Pontiggia was an Italian writer and literary critic.He was born in Como, and moved to Milan with his family in 1948. In 1959 he graduated from the Università Cattolica in Milan with a thesis on Italo Svevo...
, of 2004.
Amelio was a member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
in 1995. In 2006 he released his eight feature film, La stella che non c'è
La stella che non c'è
La stella che non c'è is an Italian film directed by Gianni Amelio in 2006.The story talks about an Italian engineer went to China fixing a defect of an old Italian steel-making equipment....
, featuring Sergio Castellitto
Sergio Castellitto
Sergio Castellitto is an Italian actor and director.Castellitto attended the academy of dramatic art and dedicated himself to theatre soon after, working with many famous actors such as Luigi Squarzina, Aldo Trionfo and Enzo Muzii...
. Since 2009, he is director of Torino Film Festival, Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
.
Filmography
- La città del sole (1973, TV)
- Effetti speciali (1974, TV)
- Bertolucci secondo il cinema (1976, TV)
- La morte al lavoro (1978, TV)
- Il piccolo Archimede (1979, TV)
- I velieri (1980, TV)
- Colpire al cuore (1982)
- I ragazzi di via PanispernaI ragazzi di via Panispernais an Italian movie by director Gianni Amelio, telling the enthusiasms, fears, joys and disappointments of the life of a well-known group of boys fond of physics and mathematics, who just made history as the Via Panisperna boys.-Plot:The story is inspired by a real life fact and set in the...
(1987) - Open DoorsOpen Doors (1990 film)Open Doors is an award-winning 1990 film directed by Gianni Amelio. Set in Palermo in the 1930s, a judge who is morally against the death penalty is confronted with the case of a man who has murdered his wife and two colleagues in cold blood...
(1989) - Stolen Children (1992)
- LamericaLamerica-Plot:Gino and Fiore are Italian racketeers who come to Albania just after the fall of the communists to set up a fictive firm and pocket the grants....
(1994) - Così ridevano (1998)
- The Keys to the HouseThe Keys to the HouseThe Keys to the House is a 2004 dramatic family film telling the story of a young father meeting his handicapped son for the first time and attempts to forge a relationship with the teenager...
(2004) - La stella che non c'èLa stella che non c'èLa stella che non c'è is an Italian film directed by Gianni Amelio in 2006.The story talks about an Italian engineer went to China fixing a defect of an old Italian steel-making equipment....
(2006) - The First Man (2011)
Awards
- Nastro d'ArgentoNastro d'ArgentoThe Nastro d'Argento is a movie award assigned each year, since 1946, for cinematic performances and production by Sindacato Nazionale dei Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani, the association of Italian film critics...
Best Director- Open Doors (1991)
- The Stolen Children (1993)
- Lamerica (1995)
- The Keys to the House (2005)
- Leone d'Oro at Venice Film FestivalVenice Film FestivalThe Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
- Così ridevano (1998)
- European Film Awards Best Film
- Porte aperte (1991)
- The Stolen Children (1993)
- Lamerica (1995)