Giuliano Montaldo died at his home in Rome. Born in Genoa in 1930, he would have been 94 years old on February 22nd. He is close to his wife Vera Pescarolo, his daughter Elisabetta and his two grandchildren Inti and Jana Carboni. At the request of the family, there will be no public funeral. As a director, screenwriter and actor, he has directed over 20 films. These include “The Untouchables” (1969); Sacco e Vanzetti (1970; Giordano Bruno (1973); L’Agnese Va A Morire (1976); Gli Occhiali d’Oro (1987). Montaldo was also very active in the production of major television works such as the 8-part blockbuster Marco Polo .
The film Sacco and Vanzetti
At just 14 years old, Montaldo was arrested by the Nazi fascists in Liguria and deported to the Southern Front. He managed to escape and then joined the resistance in his city’s Patriotic Action Group (Gap). He made his acting debut in 1951 in Caution! Bandits! by Carlo Lizzani with Gina Lollobrigida and, again by Lizzani, in “Chronicles of Poor Lovers” with Marcello Mastroianni. He then appeared in around twenty films in his career, directed by Luciano Emmer, Francesco Maselli, Elio Petri, Valerio Zurlini and Margarethe von Trotta, Nanni Moretti, Carlo Verdone and finally by Francesco Bruni in Tutto tutto che occhi, which earned him a David di Donatello Prize in 2018 for his performance. Debuted as assistant director on numerous films, including “La Lunga Strada Azzurra” (1957) and “Kapò” (1960), and later as second unit director on “La Battaglia Di Algeri” (1966), all directed by Gillo Pontecorvo Montaldo directed “Tiro” in 1961. Al Piccione, restored by the Cineteca Nazionale, was presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2019. Over 20 films directed by him, 16 of which were set to music by Ennio Morricone and made Montaldo the director with whom the composer collaborated several times, went down in cinema history, including: “The Untouchables” (1969) with John Cassavetes; Sacco e Vanzetti (1970, with Gian Maria Volonté), which won Riccardo Cucciolla the Best Actor award at the Cannes Festival in 1971; Giordano Bruno (1973) again with a tremendous Gian Maria Volonté and with Charlotte Rampling; L’Agnese Va A Morire (1976) with an excellent performance by Ingrid Thulin; Gli Occhiali d’Oro (1987), based on the novel of the same name by Giorgio Bassani, starring Philippe Noiret, Rupert Everett, Stefania Sandrelli and Valeria Golino; until his last film as a director with Andrea Purgatori, L’Industriale (2011) with Pierfrancesco Favino, a film that won countless awards including four Golden Globes from the foreign press. Montaldo was also very active in the production of great television works, such as the 8-part blockbuster “Marco Polo”, produced by Rai and NBC in 1982, broadcast in 46 countries around the world and awarded the Emmy Award. An epic and very complicated undertaking, filmed in Venice, Morocco, China and Mongolia, which was only completed thanks to his persistence and enthusiasm and that of his wife Vera, his inseparable collaborator. A passionate music lover, Montaldo directed famous operas for major national and international theaters, including Turandot (1983), Il Trovatore (1990), La Bohème (1994), Otello (1994), The Magic Flute (1995), Nabucco (1997) and Tosca ( 1998), presented at the Olympic Stadium in Rome. In 1999 and until 2009 he was the first president of Rai Cinema and in 2016–17 chairman of the Academy of Italian Cinema – David di Donatello Awards. In 2002 he was appointed Knight Grand Cross by the President of the Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. In 2021, in his autobiographical book “Un Grande Amore”, published by La nave di Teseo, Montaldo narrated the film of his life in the first person for the first time and reconstructed in a very convincing way over seventy years of career in front of and behind the camera, and at the same time the deep bond of love and joint work with his wife, whom he described as “my best colleague”. Various documentaries have been made about the couple, including by Fabrizio Corallo (Vera & Giuliano), Marco Spagnoli (Four Times Twenty Years) and a number of essays, including Dal Polo All’Equatore by Alberto Crespi.
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