Storaro's philosophy is largely inspired by
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's
theory of colors, which focuses in part on the psychological effects that different colors have and the way in which colors influence our perceptions of different situations. He first worked with
Bernardo Bertolucci on
The Conformist (1970). He then worked on
Dario Argento's first directorial feature
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), which is considered a landmark in the giallo genre. With
Francis Ford Coppola, Storaro made his American film debut with
Apocalypse Now (1979), which earned him his first
Academy Award for Best Cinematography. Storaro went to win two more Academy Awards in the 1980s, one with
Warren Beatty's
Reds (1981) and one for Bertolucci's
The Last Emperor (1987). In 2002, Storaro completed the first in a series of books that articulate his philosophy of cinematography. He was the cinematographer for a BBC co-production with Italian broadcaster
RAI of
Verdi's
Rigoletto over two nights on the weekend of 4 and 5 September 2010. Though working primarily with film cameras,
Woody Allen's feature
Café Society (2016) was Storaro's first project to be shot digitally. In 2017, Storaro was honored with the
George Eastman Award. The same year he also attended the
New York Film Festival at which he debated with
Edward Lachman on cinematography and its transition from film to digital. With his son Fabrizio, he created the
Univisium format system to unify all future theatrical and television movies into one respective aspect ratio of 2.00:1. As of 2023, this unification has not happened, and the universal replacement of 4:3 televisions by large, wide-screen displays greatly reduces the need to modify scope-ratio films for home theater presentation. ==Personal life==