Francesco Rosi a Complete Retrospective 2 – 8 December at Ciné Lumière

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press release 7 November 05 Francesco Rosi A Complete Retrospective 2 – 8 December at Ciné lumière

On the road that we chose, to make cinema, Rosi is an ideal travelling companion, faithful and consistent, a ‘condottiero’ cineaste who infuses our craft with a particular dignity, like a crusade, experiencing fi lm as a heroic undertaking requiring will-power, courage, honesty, and sacrifi ce. (Federico Fellini)

To me, Rosi is one of the great masters of contemporary cinema. He has succeeded in delineating an entire culture which magnifi cent artistry as well as the sharp eye of the ethnographer. (Martin Scorsese)

The Italian Cultural Institute and the Institut français, London, in collaboration with Cinecittà Holding, are delighted to present a complete retrospective of Francesco Rosi’s fi lms, from 2 to 8 December at Ciné lumière, and to welcome Il Maestro himself for an exceptional on-stage interview on Friday 2 December.

Widely-known and respected both in Italy and abroad, Francesco Rosi has continued for half a century to practice an intensely-charged, politically-engaged and socially-committed cinema.

Francesco Rosi began his career in 1949 as an assistant director to Luchino Visconti on the most emblematic fi lm of the neo-realist movement, La terra trema. His apprenticeship continued under such different directors as Antonioni, Matarazzo, Monicelli and Giannini alongside an on-going collaboration with Visconti (Bellissima, 1951; Senso, 1954).

With their nervous rhythm, sense of atmosphere and social denunciation, his fi rst two fi lms,La sfi da (1958) and I magliari (1959) are strongly infl uenced by the brand of fi lm noir practised by Elia Kazan and John Huston.

Francesco Rosi came to the attention of the international public with his third feature, Salvatore Giuliano (1961), a fi lm that simultaneously propelled him into the ranks of the greats of world cinema. Rosi in this fi lm gives a more overtly political spin to the tradition of realism started with the earlier generation of Italian neo-realist fi lmmakers, marking ‘’a decisive change in direction for world cinema’’ (Encyclopedia of Cinema, 1967).

His successive fi lms confi rmed Rosi as a leader of a second wave of Italian neo-realism, were much admired by his peers, and showered with prizes at international festivals (Le Mani sulla città, Golden Lion atat the 1963 VeniceVenice Film Festival; Il caso Mattei, PalmePalme d’Or aatt the 1972 CanneCanness Film FFestival).estival).

Rosi is the direct descendant of the two masters of Italian neo-realism. From Visconti he inherited a sense of history and a feeling for composition, and from Rossellini the ability to piece together fragments of reality sacrifi cing none of their profundity and truth. [...] Rosi’s fi lms ask questions but provide no answers, and are driven by a search for truth. (Michel Ciment)

To be effective, the questions the fi lms ask must continue to live in the viewer even after the fi lm is over. After my fi rst few fi lms, in fact, I stopped putting the words `the End’ at the conclusion because I think fi lms should not end but should continue to grow inside us. (Francesco(Francesco RRosi)osi) Rosi’s fi lms explore the thirst for power, the ambition of public offi cials, the role of war, organised crime, economics and politics in the control of the people. If Rosi focuses on famous individuals like Salvatore Giuliano, Enrico Mattei and Lucky Luciano, it is to better understand the texture of Italian life in general.

His work touches on all the major issues in Italian twentieth-century history, from the First World War (Uomini contro, 1970), fascismfascism (Cristo si è fermato a Eboli, 1979), the liberationliberation ofof Italy (Lucky Luciano, 1973), banditry and the Sicilian question (Salvatore Giuliano), t too in internationalternational busine businessss ( Il caso Mattei, 1972), local politics and property speculation (Le mani sulla città, 1963), tterrorismerrorism and the thrthreateat ooff political insinstabilitytability (Cadaveri eccellenti, 1975).

I believe that through an engaged cinema (a label which, by the way, I do not like very much), through a cinema that attempts as much as possible to rub shoulders with the truth and with the real values of life, one can succeed in conveying the urgency of respecting human dignity. Many times the respect for human dignity is even more important than the respect for human life itself. (Francesco Rosi)

Of all his fi lms, three seemingly stand apart as unconcerned with themes of politics and society: the Neapolitan fairly-tale C’era una volta (1967), the adaptation of Bizet’s Carmen (1984), and Cronaca di una morte annunciata (1987), adapted from the novel by Gabriel García Márquez. Of the two adaptations, one serves as a pretext for a refl exion on freedom and an evocation of the class structure in southern Mediterranean society, while the other can be read as an attack on religious and patriarchal oppression. So even in his more light-hearted mode, Rosi’s perennial concerns resurface.

Besides Gian Maria Volonté, protagonist of fi ve of his fi lms and the one actor immediately associated with Rosi’s cinema, the director worked with many fi rst-rate Italian and foreign actors: Sophia Loren, Renato Salvatori, Ornella Muti, Rod Steiger, Omar Sharif, Philippe Noiret, Lino Ventura, Irene Papas and Rupert Everett. Alongside them, he frequently cast non-professional actors, further contributing to the blurring of the distinction between fi ction and documentary that is characteristic of his fi lms.

On Friday 2 December, Francesco Rosi will be in conversation with Michel Ciment, Editor-in-Chief of the French cinema magazine Positif, and author ooff a monogrmonographaph on the dirdirector,ector, Le Dossier Rosi. This meeting represents a unique opportunity for the British public to look back with Rosi himself over the career of one of the greatest directors of all time.

Francesco Rosi Complete Retrospective 2 – 8 dec 2005 at Ciné lumière

Ciné lumière at the Institut français 17 Queensberry Place London SW7 2DT T. 020 7073 1350 www.institut-francais.org.uk

Tickets: £7, double bill: £9 concessions, Italian cultural Institute and French Institute members: £5, double bill: £7

This retrospective is organised by the Italian Cultural Institute, London and the Institut français, in collaboration with Cinecittà Holding

The Francesco Rosi Complete Retrospective is on tour in: Leeds, 19th International Film Festival: 3 – 13 nov 2005 Edinburgh, Filmhouse, 15 nov – 4 dec 2005 for further information please contact: