Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tuscany on Film
Cinema heavyweight Franco Zeffirelli was born in Florence in 1923 and has set many of
his films in the region. His career has taken him from radio and theatre to opera (both stage
productions and film versions) and his films include
Romeo and Juliet
(1968),
Brother Sun,
Sister Moon
(1972),
Hamlet
(1990) and the semiautobiographical
Tea with Mussolini
(1999).
Actor, comedian and director Roberto Benigni was born near Castiglion Fiorentino in
1952. He picked up four Oscars and created a genre all of his own - Holocaust comedy -
with the extraordinarily powerful
La vita é bella
(
Life is Beautiful;
1998), a film that he dir-
ected, co-wrote and starred in. Often compared with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, he
has directed nine films (two set in Tuscany) and acted in many more, including three direc-
ted by American independent film-maker Jim Jarmusch.
Four films based on Neorealist novels by Vasco Pratolini were shot in Florence:
Le
ragazze di San Frediano
(
The Girls of San Frediano;
Valerio Zurlini; 1954),
Cronache di
poveri amanti
(
Chronicle of Poor Lovers
; Carlo Lizzani; 1954),
Cronaca familiare
(
Family
Diary;
Valerio Zurlini; 1962) and
Metello
(Mauro Bolognini; 1970).
Award-winning film-makers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani were born in San Miniato and
have set parts of three of their films in Tuscany:
La notte di San Lorenzo
(aka
The Night of
the Shooting Stars;
1982),
Le affinità elettive
(
Elective Affinities;
1996) and
Good Morning
Babylon
(1987).
