If you have ever seen films of this italian man, such warm and nostalgic, for instance Cinema Paradise or Baarìa, then, I’m sure you loved it, you will never forget it and you try to find out and watch others Giuseppe Tornatore’s films, one of the greatest modern film directors.
Giuseppe Tornatore was born in 1956 in Bagheria near Palermo, Sicily. At an early age, he took up photography and won many prizes in national competitions. He made his directorial debut at sixteen, with the short film “Il Carretto,” which brought him to the attention of RAI television, with which he began a close collaberation in 1979. Several TV films followed in rapid succession: “Portrait of a Thief,” “Meeting with Francesco Rosi,” “Sicilian Writers and Films: Giovanni Verga, Luigi Pirandello, Vitaliano Brancati and Leonardo Sciascia” and “Il Diario di Guttuso.” In 1982, he won a prize for Best Documentary at the Salerno Film Festival for “Ethnic Minorities in Sicily.”
From 1978 to 1985, he was the president of the CLTC filmmaking cooperative. On the CLTC-produced “A Hundred Days in Palermo,” starring Lino Ventura, Tornatore served as co-scriptwriter and second unit director.
He made his feature film debut in 1986 with “Il Camorrista” (“The Professor”), adapted from Giuseppe Marazzo’s novel and starring Ben Gazzarra and Laura del Sol. His next film, “Cinema Paradiso,” starring Philippe Noiret, shot on location in his hometown of Bagheria, Sicily, brought him international fame.
Giuseppe Tornatore’s third feature, “Everybody’s Fine” (“Stanno Tutti Bene”) stars Marcello Mastroianni as an elderly Sicilian patriarch who travels throughout Italy on a private mission to bring his five grown children together around one table. It was successfully released in the U.S. in 1991. Since then, he contributed a segment, “The Blue Dog,” starring Philippe Noiret, to the the 1991 omnibus film “Especially on Sunday,” which also included films by Giuseppe Bertolucci and Marco Tullio Giordana.
“His films touch the soul of Sicily, transcending the ordinary, the conventional, the stereotypical. Giuseppe Tornatore was born and raised in Bagheria (outside Palermo). He started working very young as a photographer, publishing in various photographic magazines. At the age of sixteen he staged two plays by Pirandello and De Filippo. For the cinema he has made various documentaries, including Il Carretto, highly acclaimed at several regional and national film festivals in Italy.
In 1979 be began a long collaboration with RAI (Italy’s national television network), for which he directed several programs. From 1978 to 1985, he was chairman of the CLCT Cooperative, which produced Giuseppe Ferrara’s film 100 Days in Palermo, with Lino Ventura. Tornatore also co-wrote the screenplay and directed the second unit. In 1986 he made his debut in feature films with Il Cammorrista (“The Gangster”), starring Ben Gazzara. Freely adapted from the book by Giuseppe Marrazzo, this singular motion picture won Tornatore a Golden Globe for best new director.” wrote Michele Parisi in Bestofsicily.com
