Dino Risi Explained

Dino Risi
Birth Date:23 December 1916
Birth Place:Milan, Kingdom of Italy
Death Place:Rome, Italy
Years Active:1946–2002
Awards:1976 César Award for Best Foreign Film
for Scent of a Woman

Dino Risi (23 December 1916 – 7 June 2008) was an Italian film director. With Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Nanni Loy and Ettore Scola, he was one of the masters of commedia all'italiana.

Biography

Risi was born in Milan.[1] He had an uncle, Fernando Risi, a cinematographer, and a younger brother, Nelo (1920–2015), a director and writer. At the age of twelve, Risi became an orphan and was looked after by relatives and friends of his family.[2] He studied medicine but refused to become a psychiatrist, as his parents wished.[3]

Risi started his career in cinema as an assistant director to cinema figures such as Mario Soldati and Alberto Lattuada. Later he began directing his own films and was credited with giving early opportunities to future acting stars such as Sophia Loren and Vittorio Gassman.[2] His 1966 film Treasure of San Gennaro was entered into the 5th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Silver Prize.[4]

His biggest hits were Poor, But Handsome, followed by two sequels, which he also directed; A Difficult Life (Una vita difficile); The Easy Life (Il sorpasso); Opiate '67 or, in a cut version, 15 From Rome (I Mostri); and Scent of a Woman (Profumo di Donna), which was remade by Martin Brest starring Al Pacino in 1992.

In 2002, he was awarded the Golden Lion – Honorary Award (Leone d'oro alla carriera) at the Venice Film Festival for his life-time work. Two of his films, Il giovedì and Il commissario Lo Gatto, were shown in a retrospective section on Italian comedy at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.[5]

He died on 7 June 2008 at his residence in Rome. He was 91 and was survived by two children, Claudio Risi (1948–2020) and Marco Risi (1951), both film directors.[2]

Filmography

External links

Notes and References

  1. Book: 501 Movie Directors. Steven Jay. Schneider. Cassell Illustrated. London. 2007. 225. 9781844035731. 1347156402.
  2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7441824.stm Italian director Dino Risi dies
  3. Book: Giacovelli, Enrico. La commedia all'italiana. 1995. Gremese. 88-7605-873-7. Nuova ed. illustrata, riveduta e aggiornata. Roma. 34813408.
  4. Web site: 5th Moscow International Film Festival (1967) . 15 December 2012 . MIFF . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130116194759/http://www.moscowfilmfestival.ru/miff34/eng/archives/?year=1967 . 16 January 2013 .
  5. Web site: Italian Comedy - The State of Things . 1 August 2010 . labiennale.org . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20100801004911/http://www.labiennale.org/en/cinema/festival/lineup/off-sel/1937-1988/ . 1 August 2010 .

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