Origins and early career Rosi was born in
Naples in 1922. His father worked in the shipping industry, but was also a cartoonist and had, at one time, been reprimanded for his satirical drawings of
Benito Mussolini and
King Vittorio Emmanuel III. At the same time he began working as a reporter for . There he became friendly with
Raffaele La Capria,
Aldo Giuffrè and
Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, with each of whom he would later often collaborate. His show business career began in 1946 as an assistant to
Ettore Giannini for the stage production of a work by
Salvatore Di Giacomo. He then entered the film industry and worked as an assistant to
Luchino Visconti on
La Terra Trema ("The Earth Trembles", 1948) and
Senso ("Sense", 1954). He wrote several screenplays, including
Bellissima ("Beautiful", 1951) and
The City Stands Trial ("Processo alla città", 1952), and shot a few scenes of the film
Red Shirts ("Camicie rosse", 1952) by
Goffredo Alessandrini. In 1956 he co-directed, with
Vittorio Gassman, the film
Kean – Genio e sregolatezza ("Kean – Genius and recklessness"), about the Shakespearean actor
Edmund Kean. The realist nature of this film caused a stir in alluding to mafia control of the government. Of the film, Rosi himself said, "A director makes his first film with passion and without regard for what has gone before". But
David Shipman comments "... but this is in fact a reworking of
La Terra Trema, with the
Visconti arias replaced by
Zavattini's naturalism." The film examined the life of the Sicilian gangster
Giuliano, using the technique of a long series of flashbacks. Shipman suggests that the film, with a "superb unity of the landscape and people of Sicily" ... "made Rosi's international reputation."
1970s His 1970 film
Many Wars Ago ("Uomini contro") dealt with the futility of war, focusing on the
Trentino Front of 1916–17 during
World War I, where Italian officers made unrealistic demands of the men under their command. It was based on the novel ''Un anno sull'altopiano'' by
Emilio Lussu. The lead is played by
Mark Frechette and the cost of the film was such that Rosi needed to secure Yugoslavian collaboration. Shipman writes: "The Alpine battlefield has been imaginatively and bloodily re-created, and photographed in steely colours by
Pasqualino De Santis, but Rosi's urge to say something important – doubtless intense after the last two films – resulted only in cliché: that military men are fanatics and war is hell." During the preparation of
The Mattei Affair Rosi was in contact with
Mauro De Mauro, the Sicilian journalist murdered in mysterious circumstances for reasons which, it is suspected, included an investigation on behalf of Rosi, into the death of the president of the Italian state-owned oil and gas conglomerate
Eni. and was to win
BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1983. Rosi had been invited by the state-owned television service
RAI to select a subject for filming, and the four-part television programme was cut into a 141-minute feature film which he described as "a journey through my own conscience". Shipman writes, "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." and subsequently he worked on
Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987), adapted from the novel by
Gabriel García Márquez, which starred Gian Maria Volonté,
Ornella Muti,
Rupert Everett,
Anthony Delon and
Lucia Bosè. The film was shot in
Mompox,
Colombia. His last film as director was 1997's
The Truce, based on
holocaust survivor Levi's memoir, and starring
John Turturro. Rosi described the film in a 2008 interview with
Variety as being about "the return to life." The 58th edition of the
Berlin International Film Festival in 2008 played tribute to Rosi by screening 13 films in its
Homage section, a feature being reserved for film-makers of outstanding quality and achievement. He received the
Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement on 14 February 2008, accompanied by the screening of
Salvatore Giuliano. In 2009 he was awarded the
Cavaliere della Legion d'Onore, in 2010 the "Golden Halberd" at the
Trieste Film Festival and in May 2012 the Board of the
Venice Biennale unanimously approved the proposal of its director Alberto Barber, to award Rosi the
Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at its 69th show. Barber praised 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." On 27 October 2010 he became an honorary citizen of
Matelica, the birthplace of
Enrico Mattei, while in 2013, in the presence of the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage Massimo Bra, he was given the honorary citizenship of
Matera, where he had shot three of his films. In 2014 he took part in the film
Born in the USE, co-produced by
Renzo Rossellini and directed by Michele Dioma. In the last part of his life he lived on the Via Gregoriana in
Rome near the
Spanish Steps. In April 2010, his wife Giancarla Mandelli died. Rosi died on 10 January 2015 at the age of 92, whilst at home, as a result of complications from
bronchitis. A memorial service was held in Rome on 10 January with the
viewing of the body taking place at the Casa del Cinema, and with many fellow Italian film-makers, including fellow director
Giuseppe Tornatore, in attendance. The President of Italy
Giorgio Napolitano, Rosi's friend from their schooldays sent roses. The director
Giuseppe Piccioni said Rosi's work gave Italy "identity and dignity" continuing, "Rosi was one of those artists who lived his work like a mission." Director
Paolo Sorrentino dedicates his 2015 movie
Youth with a simple end credit "For Francesco Rosi".
Legacy The
Variety Movie Guide says of Rosi: "Most films by Francesco Rossi probe well under the surface of people and events to establish a constant link between the legal and the illegal exercise of power." Writing Rosi's obituary in
The Guardian,
David Robinson and John Francis Lane said: In his best films, the director Francesco Rosi ... was essentially a crusading, investigative journalist concerned with the corruption and inequalities of the economically depressed Italian south. He believed that “the audience should not be just passive spectators”: he wanted to make people think and question. The
British Film Institute, recognising that Rosi had made historical films, war pictures and family dramas, in a directorial career that spanned almost four decades, said "he will be remembered above all as the master of the ‘cine-investigation’ and an influence on several generations of artists, including the likes of
Martin Scorsese,
Francis Ford Coppola,
Roberto Saviano and
Paolo Sorrentino. Interviewed by
The New York Times after Rosi's death, actor
John Turturro who played Primo Levi in Rosi's last film
The Truce, called Rosi "something of a mentor". He said, "I would never have read all of Primo Levi’s work if not for him. There are a lot of films I never would have otherwise seen... He was a wonderful actor. He helped you physically as an actor. If he had trouble explaining something, he could act it out, and all the actors understood." ==Awards==