Francesco Rosi received the Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement, accompanied by the screening of his 1962 film Salvatore Giuliano.
16 Facts About Francesco Rosi
2.
Francesco Rosi's father worked in the shipping industry, but was a cartoonist and had, at one time, been reprimanded for his satirical drawings of Benito Mussolini and King Vittorio Emmanuel III.
3.
Francesco Rosi studied law and then embarked on a career as an illustrator of children's books.
4.
Francesco Rosi's show business career began in 1946 as an assistant to Ettore Giannini for the stage production of a work by Salvatore Di Giacomo.
5.
Francesco Rosi then entered the film industry and worked as an assistant to Luchino Visconti on La Terra Trema and Senso.
6.
Francesco Rosi wrote several screenplays, including Bellissima and The City Stands Trial, and shot a few scenes of the film Red Shirts by Goffredo Alessandrini.
7.
Francesco Rosi was one of the central figures of the politicised post-neorealist 1960s and 1970s of Italian cinema, along with Gillo Pontecorvo, Pier Paolo Pasolini, the Taviani brothers, Ettore Scola and Valerio Zurlini.
8.
The film starred Sophia Loren and Omar Sharif, fresh from the success of the 1965 film Doctor Zhivago, although Francesco Rosi initially asked for the part to be played by Marcello Mastroianni.
9.
The lead is played by Mark Frechette and the cost of the film was such that Francesco Rosi needed to secure Yugoslavian collaboration.
10.
In 1979 Francesco Rosi directed Christ Stopped at Eboli, based on the memoir of the same name by Carlo Levi, again with Volonte as the protagonist.
11.
Francesco Rosi had been invited by the state-owned television service RAI to select a subject for filming, and the four-part television programme was cut into a 141-minute feature film which he described as "a journey through my own conscience".
12.
Francesco Rosi directed a film adaptation of Carmen with Placido Domingo and subsequently he worked on Chronicle of a Death Foretold, adapted from the novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which brought together a great cast including Gian Maria Volonte, Ornella Muti, Rupert Everett, Anthony Delon and Lucia Bose.
13.
The 58th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival in 2008 played tribute to Francesco Rosi by screening 13 films in its Homage section, a feature being reserved for film-makers of outstanding quality and achievement.
14.
Francesco Rosi received the Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement on 14 February 2008, accompanied by the screening of Salvatore Giuliano.
15.
Francesco Rosi died, on 10 January 2015, at the age of 92, whilst at home, as a result of complications from bronchitis.
16.
Francesco Rosi directed 20 films, starting with some scenes in Goffredo Alessandrini's Red Shirts.