| Mario Masini | |
| Birth Place: | Savona, Kingdom of Italy |
| Death Place: | Stuttgart, Germany |
Mario Masini (28 January 1939 – 13 March 2023) was an Italian cinematographer and experimental director.
Born in Savona, Masini grew up in Tuscany and in 1961 he graduated from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome.[1] He started his film career as assistant operator of Vittorio Storaro in Daniele D'Anza's Pugni, pupe e marinai.[2] He is best known for his association with Carmelo Bene, with whom he collaborated as a cinematographer in all his films, including the Venice Film Festival Special Jury Prize winner Our Lady of the Turks; other notable collaborations include Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (notably being the cinematographer of Palme d'Or winner Padre Padrone), Bruno Bozzetto, Giuseppe Ferrara and Vittorio De Sisti.[3] In the 1980s Masini retired from the industry to work as a teacher in some Steiner schools, and later moved to Stuttgart. He reprised his cinema activities in the early 1990s, working mainly in independent and arthouse international productions. Masini was also a director of experimental and often surrealist films. He died on 13 March 2023, at the age of 84.