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RECENT CREDITS
Words In Progress (FILM)  Jan. 1, 2004
The Truce (FILM)  Apr. 24, 1998
The Palermo Connection (FILM)  Feb. 14, 1990
Chronicle of a Death Foretold (FILM)  Aug. 1, 1988
Bizet's Carmen (FILM)  Oct. 1, 1984

BIOGRAPHY
Leading figure in political cinema of the 1960s who began his film career as an assistant (along with Franco Zeffirelli) on Visconti's "La Terra Trema" (1948). Rosi then worked in a similar capacity for figures such as....
Leading figure in political cinema of the 1960s who began his film career as an assistant (along with Franco Zeffirelli) on Visconti's "La Terra Trema" (1948). Rosi then worked in a similar capacity for figures such as Antonioni and Monicelli, and contributed to the scripts of several films, before taking over the direction of "Red Shirts" (1952) after Goffredo Alessandrini had quit the project.

Rosi made a solid, if unexceptional, solo directing debut with the Neapolitan gangster film, "The Challenge" (1958), but landed squarely in the international spotlight with 1961's "Salvatore Guiliano". The film is an oblique, quasi-documentary account of a real-life Sicilian bandit, told largely in flashbacks and featuring, in true neorealist style, a non-professional cast shot almost entirely on location. It earned critical plaudits, including the Silver Bear at Berlin, and stirred considerable controversy for pointing out--as have several of Rosi's films--the explicit links between Mafia and state. The director continued in a similar vein with "Hands Over the City" (1963), a powerful expose of corrupt real-estate developers, and "The Moment of Truth" (1965), an indictment of exploitation in the world of bull-fighting.

Rosi began to shed the journalistic elements of his style in films such as "Lucky Luciano" (1973) and "Illustrious Corpses" (1976), two visually polished dramas which use the conventions of the gangster and thriller genres to paint searing portraits of institutional and political corruption. (In this respect, his work bears fruitful comparison with that of his countryman, Elio Petri.)

The director's subsequent work has been generally mellower in tone and more leisurely paced. "Christ Stopped at Eboli" (1979) and "Chronicle of a Death Foretold" (1987) were both adapted from literary sources and star Gian Maria Volonte. The first is a lyrical account of writer Carlo Levi's Fascist-imposed exile in a primitive southern village in the 1930s; the second is a beautifully shot but somewhat static adaptation of the best-selling novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. "Carmen" (1984) is a relatively faithful, visually sumptuous translation of Bizet's opera to the screen.




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Recently Worked With...

Pedro Almodovar
Words In Progress
Released: Jan. 1, 2004

La Terra Trema
Released: Jan. 1, 1998

Mr. Deeds
The Truce
Released: Jan. 1, 1997

Jim Belushi at the 7th Annual Stuart House Benefit. John Varvatos Boutique, Beverly Hills, CA. 03-08-09
The Palermo Connection
Released: Feb. 14, 1990

Rupert Everett
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Released: Aug. 1, 1988


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