GIANNI AMELIO

Immediately after the birth of the future director, his father emigrated to Argentina to join his grandfather, who moved there for work, and Gianni spent his childhood and adolescence with his mother and grandmother; the absence of the paternal figure will in fact be a constant in many of his works. He attended the classical high school P. Galluppi of Catanzaro and later, at the University of Messina, where he graduated in philosophy, he began to take an interest in cinema. It organizes projections and debates in various cultural circles, favoring neorealist themes. He joined the editorial board of the magazine "Giovane Critica" with the role of film and literary critic.
In 1965 he moved to Rome where he worked until 1969 as an operator and assistant director in six films, some of which by Gianni Puccini, but also with Giulio These (in Se sei vivo shoots) Vittorio De Seta, Anna Gobbi, Andrea Frezza, Liliana Cavani. At the same time he also works for television, directs services for various columns since 1967, serves as assistant to Ugo Gregoretti both in the documentary Seven years later, and in many advertising carousels, collaborates with Alfredo Angeli, Enrico Sannia and Giulio Paradisi. He also directs some industrial documentaries.
In 1970 he took his camera as part of the RAI programs, at a time when state television promotes the debut of many young directors. For the "Experimental Film for TV" series, he made the film The End of game, which was followed in 1973 by the city of the sun, based on the homonymous work by Tommaso Campanella, who won the Grand Prix of the Thonon-Les-Bains Festival the following year, then Bertolucci according to the cinema (1976), a documentary on the work from the film Novecento. Also in the same year is Special Effects, a thriller centered on the world of cinema, while two years later he directed the film La morte al lavoro, based on the story The spider by Hanns H. Ewers, winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at the Locarno Film Festival. Special Jury Prize and the Critics Prize at the Hyères Festival. In 1979 he shoots what is considered his best work on the small screen, The little Archimedes, highly praised by critics - someone even compares it to Luchino Visconti - adapted from the novel of the same name by Aldous Huxley, which gives Laura Betti the award for best actress at the San Sebastian Festival. Finally, in 1983, he made his latest television work for Rai 3, I velieri, based on the eponymous story by Anna Banti, for 10 Italian writers, 10 Italian directors.
Finally, in 1982, he enters the film circuit in the strict sense: the film Hitting the Heart, presented at the Venice Film Festival, which courageously faces the burning terrorism theme in the light of a contrasted relationship between father and son, receives the favor of critics .