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Dino Risi

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Dino Risi
Risi at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival
Born(1916-12-23)23 December 1916
Milan, Kingdom of Italy
Died7 June 2008(2008-06-07) (aged 91)
Rome, Italy
Years active1946–2002
Awards1976 César Award for Best Foreign Film
for Scent of a Woman

Dino Risi (23 December 1916 – 7 June 2008) was an Italian film director. With Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Nanni Loy and Ettore Scola, he was one of the masters of commedia all'italiana.

Biography

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Risi was born in Milan.[1] He had an uncle, Fernando Risi, a cinematographer, and a younger brother, Nelo (1920–2015), a director and writer. At the age of twelve, Risi became an orphan and was looked after by relatives and friends of his family.[2] He studied medicine but refused to become a psychiatrist, as his parents wished.[3]

Risi started his career in cinema as an assistant director to cinema figures such as Mario Soldati and Alberto Lattuada. Later he began directing his own films and was credited with giving early opportunities to future acting stars such as Sophia Loren and Vittorio Gassman.[2] His 1966 film Treasure of San Gennaro was entered into the 5th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Silver Prize.[4]

His biggest hits were Poor, But Handsome (Poveri ma belli), followed by two sequels, which he also directed; A Difficult Life (Una vita difficile); The Easy Life (Il sorpasso); Opiate '67 or, in a cut version, 15 From Rome (I Mostri); and Scent of a Woman (Profumo di Donna), which was remade by Martin Brest starring Al Pacino in 1992.

In 2002, he was awarded the Golden Lion – Honorary Award (Leone d'oro alla carriera) at the Venice Film Festival for his life-time work. Two of his films, Il giovedì and Il commissario Lo Gatto, were shown in a retrospective section on Italian comedy at the 67th Venice International Film Festival.[5]

He died on 7 June 2008 at his residence in Rome. He was 91 and was survived by two children, Claudio Risi (1948–2020) and Marco Risi (1951), both film directors.[2]

Filmography

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References

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  1. ^ Schneider, Steven Jay, ed. (2007). 501 Movie Directors. London: Cassell Illustrated. p. 225. ISBN 9781844035731. OCLC 1347156402.
  2. ^ a b c Italian director Dino Risi dies, BBC.co.uk; accessed 19 November 2015.
  3. ^ Giacovelli, Enrico (1995). La commedia all'italiana (Nuova ed. illustrata, riveduta e aggiornata ed.). Roma: Gremese. ISBN 88-7605-873-7. OCLC 34813408.
  4. ^ "5th Moscow International Film Festival (1967)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 15 December 2012.
  5. ^ "Italian Comedy - The State of Things". labiennale.org. Archived from the original on 1 August 2010. Retrieved 1 August 2010.
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