Francesco Rosi - a complete retrospective

press release
7 November 05
Francesco Rosi
A Complete Retrospective
2 – 8 December at Ciné lumière
On the road that we chose, to make cinema, Rosi is
an ideal travelling companion, faithful and consistent,
a ‘condottiero’ cineaste who infuses our craft with a
particular dignity, like a crusade, experiencing film as
a heroic undertaking requiring will-power, courage,
honesty, and sacrifice.
(Federico Fellini)
To me, Rosi is one of the great masters of contemporary
cinema. He has succeeded in delineating an entire
culture which magnificent artistry as well as the sharp
eye of the ethnographer.
(Martin Scorsese)
The Italian Cultural Institute and the Institut français, London, in collaboration with Cinecittà Holding, are
delighted to present a complete retrospective of Francesco Rosi’s films, from 2 to 8 December at Ciné
lumière, and to welcome Il Maestro himself for an exceptional on-stage interview on Friday 2 December.
Widely-known and respected both in Italy and abroad, Francesco Rosi has continued for half a century to practice
an intensely-charged, politically-engaged and socially-committed cinema.
Francesco Rosi began his career in 1949 as an assistant director to Luchino Visconti on the most emblematic
film of the neo-realist movement, La terra trema. His apprenticeship continued under such different directors as
Antonioni, Matarazzo, Monicelli and Giannini alongside an on-going collaboration with Visconti (Bellissima, 1951;
Senso, 1954).
With their nervous rhythm, sense of atmosphere and social denunciation, his first two films, La sfida (1958) and I
magliari (1959) are strongly influenced by the brand of film noir practised by Elia Kazan and John Huston.
Francesco Rosi came to the attention of the international public with his third feature, Salvatore Giuliano (1961), a
film that simultaneously propelled him into the ranks of the greats of world cinema. Rosi in this film gives a more
overtly political spin to the tradition of realism started with the earlier generation of Italian neo-realist filmmakers,
marking ‘’a decisive change in direction for world cinema’’ (Encyclopedia of Cinema, 1967).
His successive films confirmed Rosi as a leader of a second wave of Italian neo-realism, were much admired by
his peers, and showered with prizes at international festivals (Le Mani sulla città, Golden Lion at the 1963 Venice
Film Festival; Il caso Mattei, Palme d’Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival).
Rosi is the direct descendant of the two masters of Italian neo-realism. From Visconti he inherited a sense of
history and a feeling for composition, and from Rossellini the ability to piece together fragments of reality
sacrificing none of their profundity and truth. [...] Rosi’s films ask questions but provide no answers, and are
driven by a search for truth. (Michel Ciment)
To be effective, the questions the films ask must continue to live in the viewer even after the film is over.
After my first few films, in fact, I stopped putting the words `the End’ at the conclusion because I think films
should not end but should continue to grow inside us. (Francesco Rosi)
Rosi’s films explore the thirst for power, the ambition of public officials, the role of war, organised crime, economics
and politics in the control of the people. If Rosi focuses on famous individuals like Salvatore Giuliano, Enrico Mattei
and Lucky Luciano, it is to better understand the texture of Italian life in general.
His work touches on all the major issues in Italian twentieth-century history, from the First World War (Uomini
contro, 1970), fascism (Cristo si è fermato a Eboli, 1979), the liberation of Italy (Lucky Luciano, 1973), banditry
and the Sicilian question (Salvatore Giuliano), to international business (Il caso Mattei, 1972), local politics
and property speculation (Le mani sulla città, 1963), terrorism and the threat of political instability (Cadaveri
eccellenti, 1975).
I believe that through an engaged cinema (a label which, by the way, I do not like very much), through a
cinema that attempts as much as possible to rub shoulders with the truth and with the real values of life, one
can succeed in conveying the urgency of respecting human dignity. Many times the respect for human dignity
is even more important than the respect for human life itself. (Francesco Rosi)
Of all his films, three seemingly stand apart as unconcerned with themes of politics and society: the Neapolitan
fairly-tale C’era una volta (1967), the adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen (1984), and Cronaca di una morte annunciata
(1987), adapted from the novel by Gabriel García Márquez. Of the two adaptations, one serves as a pretext for a
reflexion on freedom and an evocation of the class structure in southern Mediterranean society, while the other
can be read as an attack on religious and patriarchal oppression. So even in his more light-hearted mode, Rosi’s
perennial concerns resurface.
Besides Gian Maria Volonté, protagonist of five of his films and the one actor immediately associated with Rosi’s
cinema, the director worked with many first-rate Italian and foreign actors: Sophia Loren, Renato Salvatori, Ornella
Muti, Rod Steiger, Omar Sharif, Philippe Noiret, Lino Ventura, Irene Papas and Rupert Everett. Alongside them, he
frequently cast non-professional actors, further contributing to the blurring of the distinction between fiction and
documentary that is characteristic of his films.
On Friday 2 December, Francesco Rosi will be in conversation with Michel Ciment, Editor-in-Chief of the French
cinema magazine Positif, and author of a monograph on the director, Le Dossier Rosi. This meeting represents
a unique opportunity for the British public to look back with Rosi himself over the career of one of the greatest
directors of all time.
Francesco Rosi Complete Retrospective
2 – 8 dec 2005 at Ciné lumière
Ciné lumière at the Institut français
17 Queensberry Place
London SW7 2DT
T. 020 7073 1350
www.institut-francais.org.uk
Tickets: £7, double bill: £9
concessions, Italian cultural Institute and French Institute members: £5, double bill: £7
This retrospective is organised by the Italian Cultural Institute, London and the Institut français, in collaboration with
Cinecittà Holding
The Francesco Rosi Complete Retrospective is on tour in:
Leeds, 19th International Film Festival: 3 – 13 nov 2005
Edinburgh, Filmhouse, 15 nov – 4 dec 2005
for further information please contact:
Natacha Antolini, French Institute, T. 020 7073 1365, [email protected]
or Giulia Maione, Italian Cultural Institute, T. 020 7396 4402, [email protected]
fri 2 dec | 5.00pm
The Challenge (La sfida)
Italy / Spain | 1958 | b&w | 95 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with José Suarez, Rosanna Schiaffino, Nino Vingelli,
José Jaspe | cert. 15
fri 2 dec | 7.15pm
Francesco Rosi In-Conversation
Francesco Rosi will be in conversation with Michel Ciment, Editor-in-Chief of the French cinema magazine
Positif, and author of a monograph on the director, Le Dossier Rosi. This interview, illustrated with film clips,
represents a unique opportunity for the British public to look back with Rosi himself over the career of one of
the greatest directors of all time.
fri 2 dec | 8.30pm
Salvatore Giuliano
Italy | 1962 | b&w | 125 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with Frank Wolff, Salvo Randone, Federico Zardi, Pietro
Cammarata | cert. 15
sat 3 dec | 2.00pm
The Magliari (I magliari)
Italy / France | 1959 | b&w | 107 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with Alberto Sordi, Belinda Lee, Renato Salvatori,
Linda Vandal, Aldo Giuffrè | cert. 15
sat 3 dec | 4.15pm
Lucky Luciano
Italy / France | 1973 | col | 115 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with Gian Maria Volontè, Edmond O’Brian, Rod Steiger,
Vincent Gardenia, Charles Ciuffi | cert. 18
sat 3 dec | 6.30pm
The Mattei Affair (Il caso Mattei)
Italy | 1972 | col | 118 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with Gian Maria Volontè, Luigi Squarzina, Peter Baldwin,
Gianfranco Ombuen, Franco Graziosi | cert. 18
sat 3 dec | 8.45pm
Hands Over the City (Le mani sulla città)
Italy | 1963 | b&w | 110 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with Rod Steiger, Salvo Randone, Guido Alberti, Angelo
D’Alessandro, Carlo Fermariello | cert. 15
sun 4 dec | 4.00pm
The Moment of Truth (Il momento della verità)
Italy / Spain | 1965 | col | 110 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with Miguel Mateo Miguelin, Josè Gomez Sevillano,
Pedro Basauri Pedrucho, Linda Christian | cert. 15
sun 4 dec | 6.00pm
Christ Stopped at Eboli (Cristo si è fermato a Eboli)
Italy / France | 1979 | col | 150 mins | dir. Franceso Rosi, with Gian Maria Volontè, Paolo Bonacelli, Alain Cuny,
Lea Massari, Irene Papas, François Simon | cert. PG
sun 4 dec | 8.45pm
Cinderella: Italian Style (C’era una volta)
Italy / France | 1967 | col | 115 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with Sophia Loren, Omar Sharif, George Wilson, Leslie
French, Dolores Del Rio
mon 5 dec | 8.30pm
Illustrious Corpses (Cadaveri eccellenti)
Italy / France | 1976 | col | 120 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with Lino Ventura, Fernando Rey, Max Von Sydow,
Charles Vanel | cert. 15
tue 6 dec | 5.00pm
Many Wars Ago (Uomini contro)
Italy / Yugoslavia | 1970 | col | 101 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with Mark Freccette, Alain Cuny, Gian Maria
Volontè, Giampiero Alberini | cert. 15
tue 6 dec | 7.00pm
To Forget Palermo (Dimenticare Palermo)
Italy / France | 1990 | col | 104 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with James Belushi, Mimi Rogers, Joss Ackland,
Philippe Noiret, Vittorio Gassman | cert. 18
tue 6 dec | 9.00pm
Chronicle of a Death Foretold (Cronaca di una morte annunciata)
Italy / France | 1987 | col | 110 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with Rupert Everett, Ornella Muti, Gian Maria Volonté,
Irene Papas, Lucia Bosé, Anthony Delon | cert. 15
wed 7 dec | 6.15pm
Neapolitan Diary (Diario napoletano)
Italy | 1992 | doc | col | 120 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi
wed 7 dec | 8.30pm
Carmen
France / Italy | 1984 | col | 152 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with Julia Migenes, Placido Domingo, Ruggero
Raimondi, Faith Esham, Jean-Philippe Lafont | cert. PG
thu 8 dec | 6.15pm
The Truce (La tregua)
Italy | 1997 | col | 140 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with John Turturro, Rade Serbedzija, Massimo Ghini, Stefano
Dionisi, Teco Celio, Roberto Citran
thu 8 dec | 8.45pm
Three Brothers (Tre fratelli)
Italy / France | 1981 | col | 113 mins | dir. Francesco Rosi, with Philippe Noiret, Michele Placido, Vittorio
Mezzogiorno, Charles Vanel | cert. 12