Director Francesco Rosi dies at 92
January 10, 2015
Francesco Rosi's films offered a look into Italy's underworld of crime and corruption. In one of his most famous movies, "Salvatore Giuliano" (1962), he chose the Mafia and the story of a Sicilian bandit said to have been murdered in 1950 as his subject. In "The Mattei Affair" (1972), Rosi told the story of the oil executive Enrico Mattei, who died under mysterious circumstances in 1962.
Rosi was born in 1922 and grew up in a middle-class family in Naples, an Italian city strongly affected by corruption and organized crime. He studied law before choosing film and theater. In his youth, he assisted famous Italian filmmakers such as Luchino Visconti and Michelangelo Antonioni. Inspired by Italy's post-World War II neo-realism, many of his movies dealt with social problems and the stories of real people entangled in complicated webs of power and influence.
The Italian director won several prizes for his movies, including the top prizes at the Cannes Film Festival and the Golden Lion in Venice. He was awarded the Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2008 and another Golden Lion in Venice in 2012 for his contribution to cinema. His works influenced directors such as Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone and Francis Ford Coppola.
"With Rosi we lose a master, a man of culture, a lucid eye with a great commitment to civil society," said Ignazio Marino, mayor of Rome.
According to the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera", the 92-year-old film director died on Saturday of bronchitis.
das/tj (Reuters/dpa)