Monday,
June 09, 2008
Obit: Dino Risi,
91; Film Director Chronicled, Satirized Postwar
The
ANNOTICO Report
Dino
Risi, an Oscar-nominated master of the Italian film
who chronicled the bittersweet and lighter side of his country's postwar
economic boom, with comedies that were a ferocious satire of the
habits and flaws of Italians.
His
hits include "Poveri ma belli" ("Poor But
Beautiful"), "Belle
ma Povere" ("Poor Girl,
Pretty Girl") in 1957, and "Il
Sorpasso" ("The Easy
Life") in 1962, in the 1950s with "Pane,
Amore e . . . " ("Scandal in Sorrento"), in
1974, "Profumo di Donna" ("Scent of a
Woman"), which received Oscar nominations for best foreign language movie
and best adapted screenplay, and remade in 1992 starring Al Pacino,
that won an Oscar
Also, "La Marcia su Roma" ("March on Rome")
of 1963, and "I Mostri" ("Opiate 67").and in
1971 with "In Nome del
Popolo Italiano" ("In the Name of the Italian
People")
Dino Risi, 91; Film Director Chronicled, Satirized Postwar
From
Wire Reports
June 9, 2008
ROME Dino Risi,
an Oscar-nominated master of the Italian film who chronicled the bittersweet
and lighter side of his country's postwar economic boom, has died. He was 91.
Risi, who had been in failing health for several
years, died Saturday at his residence in
His comedies were a ferocious satire of the habits and flaws of Italians, often
featuring unflattering characters: the superficial charlatan, the cheating
husband, the immoral father.
But the chilling, sometimes tragic, endings of some of his movies showed depth
and moral rigor behind the laughs.
"I feel a great pain for his death. His movies were beautiful and
funny," said actress Sophia Loren.
During a career that spanned decades, he worked with some of the finest Italian
actors, including Loren, Vittorio Gassman and Alberto
Sordi.
His hits include "Poveri ma belli "
("Poor But Beautiful"), "Belle ma Povere"
("Poor Girl, Pretty Girl") in 1957, and "Il Sorpasso"
("The Easy Life") in 1962, starring Gassman
and Jean-Louis Trintignant as an improbable pair
traveling toward a tragic end during an Italian summer.
In 1974, Risi directed "Profumo
di Donna" ("Scent of a Woman"), which received Oscar nominations
for best foreign language movie and best adapted screenplay.
It told the story of an army captain left blind by the war who
tours
A
Born in
His movies in that period and for the next decade captured the transformation
of Italian society during and after the economic boom that followed World War
II.
In "La Marcia su Roma" ("March on
He scored commercial success and critical acclaim in 1971 with "In Nome
del Popolo Italiano" ("In the Name of the Italian People") --
the story of a seemingly irreproachable Italian magistrate investigating an
industrialist of dubious morality for murder.
The ending, as often with Risi, turned the tables.
Risi was awarded a Golden Lion for lifetime
achievement at the Venice Film Festival in 2002, where he received a rousing
ovation after a special screening of "Il Sorpasso."
In the latter part of his career he worked mainly for TV.
Survivors include Risi's two children, Claudio an d Marco, the latter also a director.
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