Francesco Rosi, Italian film-maker, author of “Le Mani sulla città” winner of the Golden Lion at the 1963 Venice Film Festival, and “Il caso Mattei” winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1972, died on Saturday, January 10th at the age of 92. Born November 15th 1922 in Naples, he started in the world of cinema as Luchino Visconti’s assistant on “La Terra Trema” in 1948. In 1958 he directed his first feature film “La sfida” which won the Jury Prize of the Venice Film Festival. It is the forerunner of the “investigative film”, weaving drama with archive images. Using this genre, he denounced real estate profiteering in “Le Mani sulla città”, the mafia, corruption, organized crime in “Salvatore Giuliano” in 1961 and “Lucky Luciano” in 1973, the oil powers in “Il caso Mattei”. In 1984, he shifted his focus and directed a film of Bizet’s opera “Carmen”. In 1997 he made his last film, “La Tregua”, adapted from Primo Levi’s novel.
Sources: rfi.fr, lemonde.fr, liberation.fr
