Akademik

(1923-)

   Cinematographer. Rotunno began in the industry as a still photographer at the age of 17. His career was interrupted in 1942 when he was conscripted and sent to Greece as a film reporter but then captured and interned by the Germans when Italy signed the armistice in 1943. After returning to Italy in 1945 he served an apprenticeship as assistant to G. R. Aldo on a number of films, which included Vittorio De Sica's Umberto D (1952), before graduating to director of photography on Dino Risi's Pane, amore e . . . (Scandal in Sorrento, 1955).

   In the following years he worked with many of the major Italian directors, among them Valerio Zurlini, Mario Monicelli, Lina Wertmiiller, and Vittorio De Sica. He was cinematographer for Luchino Visconti on Le notti bianche (White Nights, 1957), Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers, 1960), Il gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963), and Lo straniero (The Stranger, 1967) and for Federico Fellini on a host of films that included Satyricon (Fellini Satyricon, 1969), Roma (Fellini's Roma, 1972), Amarcord (1973), Casanova (Fellini's Casanova, 1976), Prova d'orchestra (Orchestra Rehearsal, 1978), and E la nave va (And the Ship Sails On, 1983). Much respected on both sides of the Atlantic—in 1959 he had already photographed Stanley Kramer's On the Beach (1959)—he was also called to work with Mike Nichols on Carnal Knowledge (1971) and with Bob Fosse on All That Jazz (1979), a contribution that earned him the Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography.

   In the late 1990s, with over 70 films to his credit, Rotunno retired from the industry in order to continue teaching at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. Having already garnered a string of prizes during his career, among them three David di Donatello and seven Nastri d'argento, in 1999 Rotunno was also recognized with the Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award and the International Award from the American Society of Cinematographers. Further highlighting his contribution to world cinema, in 2006 he was awarded a special 50th-anniversary David di Donatello.