JULY 20th

BIOGRAPHY

Matteo Garrone was born in 1968. He is considered one of the best Italian directors of the last generation. After graduating he took interest in painting and then decided to enter the world of audio visuals: in 1996 he won the Sacher d'Oro Award for his short film Silhouette, which would later become one of the three episodes of his first feature Terra di mezzo. In 1997 he shot a documentary in New York with Carlo Cresto-Dina on the pentecost called Bienvenido Espirito Santo. With Cresto-Dina, 1998, he worked on the documentary Oreste Pipolo, fotografo di matrimoni. In the same year he also made his second feature, Ospiti, which received a special mention at the Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica di Venezia: it is about emigration confirming Garrone's interest for realism, this time though focusing on the existential uncertitude of the characters rather than their social issues. In 2000 he approached the comedy genre though keeping a documentary style in Estate romana (2000); the story is a tribute to 1970's underground theatres against the backdrop of the Capital disarranged by works before the Jubilee.

In 2002 he won the critics appraisal thanks to the L'imbalsamatore/The Embalmer, with which he won the David di Donatello Award for best screenplay. The film is based on a true story recombining noir elements within a story that sits between realism and artistic abstraction. Primo amore/First Love (2004) is also based on a true story and it is about a man who is obsessed by female weight who monitors his girlfriend's food consumption and by the desire of absolute control over the loved one. In 2006 he played a cammeo in Nanni Morettis' Il Caimano as a D.P.

In 2008 he directed the adaptation of Roberto Saviano's bestseller Gomorra about camorra which won him the Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival and several David di Donatello awards. Four years later he was back in Cannes with Reality, which was awarded the Jury's Grand Prix as well as two Nastri d'argento and three David di Donatello awards.

In 2015 he made the Tale of Tales - Il racconto dei racconti (2015), a great fantasy auteur film against the backdrop of the baroq, starring Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, Toby Jones and John C. Reilly. The flick was won seven David di Donatello awards, including Best Director.

Photo credits: STEFANO BARONI