Film comedy director helped launch career of Sophia Loren
Dino Risi won a number of top awards for his work in Italian cinema |
He had a string of hits in the 1950s and 1960s and gave
future stars Sophia Loren, Alberto Sordi and Vittorio Gassman opportunities
early in their careers.
Risi’s older brother, Fernando, was a cinematographer and
his younger brother, Nelo, was a director and writer.
He started his career as an assistant to Mario Soldati and
Alberto Lattuada and then began directing his own films.
One of Risi’s early successes was the 1951 comedy, Vacation
with a Gangster, in which he cast the 12-year-old actor Mario Girotti, who
later became well known under the name Terence Hill.
His 1966 film, Treasure of San Gennaro was entered into the
5th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a silver prize.
Among his best-known films are Pane, amore e… in 1955,
Poveri ma belli in 1956, Una vita difficile in 1961 and Profumo di donna in
1974.
Agostina Belli and Vittorio Gassman in a scene from Dino Risi's Profumo di donna |
In 2002 Risi was awarded the Golden Lion award at the Venice
Film Festival for his lifetime’s work.
Two of his films, Il giovedi and Il commissario Lo Gatto,
were shown in a retrospective section on Italian comedy at the 67th Venice
International Film Festival.
Risi died at the age of 91 in 2008 at his home in Rome,
where he had lived for 30 years in an apartment in the Aldrovandi Residence in
the Parioli district. He was survived by his two children, Claudio, and Marco,
who is a film director.
Milan, Risi’s town of birth, is the capoluogo – the most
important city – of Lombardia. As well as being an important financial centre,
Milan is a mecca for fashion shoppers and a magnet for opera lovers. Visit
Piazza Duomo in the centre of the city where you are bound to be impressed with
the Duomo, which is the third largest cathedral in the world. Walk through the
Galleria Vittorio Emanuele where there are elegant bars and restaurants and
designer shops. At the other end, Piazza Scala is home to the world famous
opera house, Teatro alla Scala, where there is a fascinating museum with
original costumes and scores and some items that belonged to the composer
Giuseppe Verdi. You can walk along the Via Manzoni to see the Grand Hotel et de
Milan where Verdi died in 1901. From there turn into Via Montenapoleone where
the top Italian and international fashion designers have shops.
The Venice Film Festival, where Risi was honoured, was first
held in 1932 and took place between 6 and 21 August on the terrace of the Hotel
Excelsior at the Venice Lido. The festival was considered a success and was
held again in 1934 from August 1-20, when it involved a competition for the
first time. In 1935 the Film Festival became a yearly event in Venice and the
Coppa Volpi (Volpi Cup), an award for actors, was introduced for the first
time. The Venice Lido is an eight-mile long sand bank that forms a natural
barrier between Venice and the open sea and has become a seaside resort for the
city. It is the only island in the lagoon with roads and can be reached from
the mainland by car ferry. The Lido is served by regular vaporetti – water buses
– from Venice and has plenty of hotels. It became a fashionable holiday
destination at the beginning of the 20th century for royalty, writers and film
stars. The atmosphere at the time was brilliantly captured by Thomas Mann’s
book Death in Venice, published in 1912, which was made into a film in 1971
directed by Luchino Visconti.