Description
Giuseppe Tornatore (born 27 May 1956) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. He is considered as one of the directors who brought critical acclaim back to Italian cinema. In a career spanning over 30 years he is best known for directing and writing drama films such as Everybody’s Fine, The Legend of 1900, Malèna, Baarìa and The Best Offer. Probably his most noted film is Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, for which Tornatore won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He has also directed several advertising campaigns for Dolce & Gabbana.
Tornatore is also known for his long-standing association with composer Ennio Morricone, who composed music for thirteen Tornatore feature films since 1988.
Life and career
Born in Bagheria near Palermo, Tornatore developed an interest in acting and the theatre from at least the age of 16 and put on works by Luigi Pirandello and Eduardo De Filippo. He worked initially as a freelance photographer. Then, switching to cinema, he made his debut with Le minoranze etniche in Sicilia (The Ethnic Minorities in Sicily), a collaborative documentary film which won a Salerno Festival prize. He then worked for RAI before releasing his first full-length film, Il Camorrista, in 1985. This evoked a positive response from audience and critics alike and Tornatore was awarded the Silver Ribbon for best new director. Tornatore’s best known screen work was released in 1988: Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, a film narrating the life of a successful film director who has returned to his native town in Sicily for the funeral of his mentor. This obtained worldwide success and won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Subsequently, Tornatore released several other films. In 2007 he won the Silver George for Best Director at the 29th Moscow International Film Festival for The Unknown Woman.
MONICA BELLUCCI BIOGRAPHY :
Monica Anna Maria Bellucci (born 30 September 1964) is an Italian actress and model. She began her career as a fashion model, modelling for Dolce & Gabbana, before transitioning to Italian and later American and French films. She has continued to be involved in modelling for Cartier, Dior and Dolce & Gabbana. In 2018, Forbes Italy named her one of the 100 most successful Italian women. Bellucci made her Italian film debut in Francesco Laudadio’s La Riffa (1991) and went on to play a bride of Dracula in Francis Ford Coppola’s horror film Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992). Her breakthrough role was in the arthouse The Apartment (1996), for which she received a César Award nomination for Most Promising Actress. She captured American audiences’ attention in Stephen Hopkins’ Under Suspicion (2000). She gained greater international recognition by portraying Malèna Scordia in Giuseppe Tornatore’s Malèna (2000). Bellucci starred in the period drama Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001), in a comedic role in Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002), and in Gaspar Noé’s controversial arthouse thriller Irréversible (2002) carried with her fearless performance. Bellucci portrayed Persephone in the 2003 science-fiction films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. She portrayed Mary Magdalene in Mel Gibson’s drama The Passion of the Christ (2004). She starred in The Brothers Grimm (2005), How Much Do You Love Me? (2005), Shoot ‘Em Up (2007), The Whistleblower (2010), The Ages of Love (2011), The Wonders (2014), and Ville-Marie (2015). At the age of 50, by appearing in the 2015 James Bond film Spectre, Bellucci became the oldest Bond girl in the history of the franchise. Continuing her international multilingual acting career, she has since acted in films such as On the Milky Road (2016), The Best Years of a Life (2019), The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020), and Memory (2022). Her television appearances include the series Mozart in the Jungle and Dix pour cent. Bellucci made her stage debut in 2019, initiating a long series of interpretations of the Letters and Memoirs of Maria Callas. Among her accolades are two Globo d’oro Awards, two Nastro d’Argento Awards, a Donostia Award, and a David Special Award. Bellucci received the knight insignias of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2006 and of the Legion of Honour in 2016. She is a permanent member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
