The film director Paolo Taviani died this Thursday in a clinic in Rome at the age of 92, after a brief illness.
With his brother Vittorio, who disappeared six years ago, he formed the most famous and appreciated duo of film directors in the transalpine country.
They were inseparable throughout their half-century career and together they signed fifteen essential films in the Italian cinema.
Critics highlighted the harmony with which they assembled their vision of cinema, to the point that it was impossible to distinguish the scenes shot by one from those directed by the other.
Paolo wrote and shot his first solo film four years after the death of his brother,
Leonora Addio
, about the legacy of the writer Luigi Pirandello.
More information
Vittorio Taviani, great Italian film director, dies
The Taviani brothers were active for just over fifty years.
Between the seventies and eighties of the last century they directed their most acclaimed films, such as
Padre Padrone
, and conquered critics with their stylistic elegance and civil commitment.
The enormous cultural changes that occurred in Italy in the second half of the 20th century have been captured in his cinema.
Paolo Taviani during the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival on February 15, 2022 in Berlin, Germany.
Stephane Cardinale - Corbis (Corbis via Getty Images)
In their feature films they touched on numerous themes, addressing current events, history and literature.
They dealt with the suffocating atmosphere of prison, the eternal disenchantment of the left, the harshness of the rural world, paternal oppression or the collusion between gangsters and landowners, in a film that garnered great recognition.
They were known for forming a strongly politicized couple and for being heirs to the cinematographic legacy of Roberto Rossellini, which inspired them to dedicate themselves to cinema with
Paisà
, the neorealist work that addresses the Italy of the Second World War.
Their greatest success, also international, came with Padre Padrone in 1977, with which they won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes festival.
It is the story of a young shepherd who rebels against the brutality of his rural father, who did not allow him to attend school in Sardinia in the 1940s and wanted him to succeed her as a sheep herder.
At the same festival they took the Grand Jury Prize for
La notte di San Lorenzo
(
The Night of the Falling Stars
) in 1982, a film that tells the dramatic story of the inhabitants of the directors' hometown during the Nazi occupation of Italy. in a tragicomic tone, which made critics begin to use the label “magical realism” for his work.
'Caesar must die' (2012), by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani.
In its simplicity lies its magic: 'Julius Caesar' performed by a theater company from a high-security prison in Rome and filmed in its cells, hallways and courtyards.
With the combination of color and black and white he won the Berlin Golden Bear.
From the 90s to 2017, the brothers made eight films.
The last one they directed together was
Una questione privata
, inspired by the novel of the same name by the writer and partisan Beppe Fenoglio.
In 2017, Paolo Taviani and his brother received the Giraldillo of Honor at the Seville European Film Festival.
That year he gave an interview to this newspaper in which he talked about teamwork with Vittorio.
They saw each other almost every morning, looked for stories in the press or books, wrote the scripts and chose the actors, all together.
They took turns directing: “Every time he directs one, and the team and the actors know that when he directs one, they can only talk to him.
The other one doesn't count.
But when one rolls he knows that the other is behind.
A look is usually enough.
We have a relationship that I would say is telepathic,” the director recalled.
Working as a team didn't seem so strange to him: after all, the creators of cinema were also brothers.
The Lumiere brothers.
In fact, the Taviani masters took their first steps in cinema when the Lumières were still alive, and they managed to maintain their pulse for more than five decades to conquer the public and critics.
In 2012, after some ups and downs, they returned to the path of international glory with
César Must Die
, which Paolo signed at the age of 81 and with which they won the Golden Bear in Berlin.
In the film they tell the unique and dramatic story of the inmates of the Roman prison of Rebibbia, many of them former mafia hitmen, while they prepare the performance of Shakespeare's play
Julius Caesar
.
In addition to their admired Rossellini, they recognized a multitude of influences: Picasso, Tolstoy, Shakespeare... “Originality is a big lie.
“When you say you want to be original, it's stupid,” Paolo said.
The brothers Paolo (second left) and Vittorio Taviani (second right), are accompanied by the actors, for the presentation of their film "La Notte di San Lorenzo" during the Cannes International Film Festival on May 18 1982.RALPH GATTI (AFP)
Paolo was born in San Miniato, Pisa, in 1931, two years after Vittorio.
Sons of an anti-fascist lawyer, both abandoned classes to dedicate themselves entirely to cinema.
The brothers promoted a film library in Pisa, where they organized shows and film screenings.
In the Tuscan city they debuted in 1954 with some recognized documentaries about the post-war period, such as
San Miniato luglio '44
, in which they recount the massacre committed by the Nazis in the town during World War II.
In 1960 they co-directed with documentary maestro Joris Ivens
L'Italia non è un paese povero
, produced by Italian television.
After directing several documentaries, they brought to the big screen, together with Valentino Orfini,
Un uomo da bruciare
in 1962, based on the story of a trade unionist murdered by the mafia, Valentino Orfini.
This film with great moral background won the critics' prize at the Venice Film Festival.
Paolo Taviani died accompanied by his wife Lina Nerli and his children Ermanno and Valentina, according to the family.