Akademik

(1956-)

   Photographer, screenwriter, director. Later to become one of the leading names of the so-called New Italian Cinema, Tornatore achieved early success as a still photographer and a prize-winning documentary filmmaker. After a number of television documentaries produced for RAI, he collaborated on the script and served as second unit director for Giuseppe Ferrara's Cento giorni a Palermo (A Hundred Days in Palermo, 1984), a film about General Dalla Chiesa's ill-fated attempt to destroy the Sicilian Mafia. His own feature directorial debut came two years later with another film on the Mafia, Il camorrista (The Professor, 1986), which earned him a Nastro d'argento as Best New Director. He would, however, achieve both national and international renown with Nuovo cinema Paradiso (Cinema Paradiso, 1989), a nostalgic and loving celebration of the golden days of cinema that won, among many other awards, the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. His next film, Stanno tutti bene (Everybody's Fine, 1990), was a less celebratory look at the social degradation in Italy in the late 1980s, but was followed by the more whimsical Il cane blu (The Blue Dog), one segment of the four-episode film La domenica specialmente (Especially on Sunday, 1992). Una pura formalita (A Pure Formality, 1994), a sort of metaphysical whodunit located almost entirely in one dark, rain-sodden room and starring Roman Polanski and Gerard Depardieu, is probably Tornatore's best and most complex film to date. This was followed by L'uomo dalle stelle (The Star Maker, 1995), another film that celebrated cinema, and then La leggenda delpianista sull'oceano (The Legend of 1900, 1998), a big-budget adaptation of a theatrical monologue by Alessandro Baricco that attracted a host of prizes including six David di Donatello awards and a special Nastro d'argento for Ennio Morricone's score. Tornatore returned to the Sicily of his childhood again with Malena (2000), an erotic coming-of-age film set during World War II and featuring the stunning looks of Monica Bellucci.

   Putting plans for a major film on the Battle of Stalingrad on hold for the moment due to lack of finances, Tornatore has most recently directed La sconosciuta (The Unknown Woman, 2006), a neo-noir set in the northern Italian city of Trieste that earned him both the 2007 Nastro d'argento and the David di Donatello award for Best Director.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira