Callisto Cosulich (7 July 1922 – 6 June 2015) was an Italian film critic, author, journalist and screenwriter.
Born in Trieste, Cosulich studied marine engineering at the University of Genoa and during the Second World War, as a reserve officer in the Navy, he took care of film screenings aboard a cruiser.[1] Come back in his hometown, he began to work as a film critic for the local newspaper Giornale di Trieste.[2] In 1947 he co-founded the Federation of Italian film clubs (FICC), becoming its secretary in 1950.[1]
Moved to Rome, Cosulich collaborated as a film critic with a large number of publications, and cured for RAI television several monographic film cycles about Japanese cinema, New Hollywood, Billy Wilder, Josef von Sternberg, Yasujirō Ozu and sports films.[2] He was also active as a screenwriter for a number of films, notably Mario Bava's Planet of the Vampires.[3] He was co-founder, with Enrico Rossetti, of the first Italian arthouse cinema, the Quirinetta Cinema in Rome, which significantly contributed to the spread of art films in Italy.[2]
Cosulich was member of the jury at the 53rd Venice International Film Festival and at the 37th Berlin International Film Festival.[2] [3]
He died on 6 June 2015.[4]