RIP Giuseppe Rotunno

 

Peppino Rotunno, the master of photography of Visconti and Fellini, died 

He was 97 years old. In his long career he has worked on masterpieces such as 'Amarcord', 'Il gattopardo' and 'Il Casanova'

la Repubblica

by Chiara Ugolini

February 7, 2021

Giuseppe, known as Peppino, Rotunno, one of the greatest masters of world photography, collaborator of Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini, died. He was 97 years old. In his long career he has worked on masterpieces such as Amarcord, Il gattopardo and Rocco and his brothers and Il Casanova but also a lot in the United States.

Seven Silver Ribbons, two David di Donatello and an Oscar nomination for best photography in 1980 for All That Jazz - The Continuous Show by Bob Fosse, for which he also won a Bafta. He had received another British Oscar nomination in 1976 for Federico Fellini's Il Casanova. Active, despite his advanced age, Rotunno was in charge of the Photography course at the Experimental Center until 2013 and has personally supervised many restoration works on his films including that of Rocco and his brothers from Visconti, Amarcord di Fellini.

Born in Rome on March 19, 1923, Rotunno had his first photographic experiences in Cinecittà starting from the 1940s, becoming a collaborator of directors such as Vàclav Vich, Renato Del Frate and Rodolfo Lombardi. After winning the trust of Roberto Rossellini, the young director of photography made his debut with the camera thanks to The Man of the Cross, he was just twenty years old.

During the Second World War he was a reportage operator in Greece collaborating with the director Michele Gandin with whom he signed numerous documentaries including Christ has not stopped in Eboli, Leone d'Oro at the Venice International Film Festival in 1952. He is alone the first of a long list of masterpiece films that will take him all over the world.

The list of masters he has worked with is endless: Vittorio De Sica, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Mario Monicelli, Valerio Zurlini, Mario Soldati, Antonio Pietrangeli, Lina Wertmuller, Massimo Troisi and Roberto Benigni, Roberto Faenza, Dario Argento. Even if the most fruitful collaborations were those with Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini. With Visconti shot of Senso, Rocco and His Brothers, The Leopard, The Stranger, the episodes The work of Boccaccio '70 and The witch burned alive de Witches. With Fellini, Toby Dammit 's episode of Tre passi nel delirio ,Fellini Satyricon, Rome, Amarcord, Federico Fellini's Il Casanova, Orchestral Rehearsal, The city of women, And the ship goes.

In Hollywood he has worked with important directors such as Stanley Kramer, Martin Ritt, John Huston, Mike Nichols, Monte Hellman, Bob Fosse, Robert Altman, Alan J. Pakula, Fred Zinnemann, Terry Gilliam, Sydney Pollack. He was the first non-American cinematographer to be admitted to the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) in 1966.

ROTUNNO, Giuseppe

Born: 3/19/1923, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Died: 2/7/2021, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Giuseppe Rotunno’s western – cinematographer:

China 9, Liberty 37 - 1978