Franco Zeffirelli is a cult director, producer, and artist whose work touches on many deep topics. The secrets of the biography and the riddles of the director’s creativity help to understand what events and beliefs became the basis for creating brilliant works. The article presents portraits of Franco Zeffirelli (photos of different ages). A diligent student of Lukino Visconti highlights the phenomena that exist outside of time - beauty, love and art.
Franco Zeffirelli: biography
At birth, the future director received the name Gianfranco Corsi. He was born on February 12, 1923. My father was a modest clothing merchant. Mother died when Franco was 6 years old. Being passionate about art, he graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Florence.
Aunt was engaged in the upbringing of the boy, and later - the father's servant. This is explained by the fact that Franco Zeffirelli was born from a woman on the side.
When the war began, he went into the mountains, refusing to join Mussolini's army. Franco fought along with the partisans. After the war, he moved to Rome, becoming an artist and actor. Since the 1950s, the director staged a large number of operas and plays, visiting London, Milan, New York and many other major cities with them. The main feature of Franco's style is staged luxury.
Artist Gianfranco Corsi
Academic art education brought Franco Zeffirelli to the Florence Theater, where he worked as a graphic designer. Immediately met his future teacher - Lukino Visconti.
The then-famous director and screenwriter offered Zeffirelli a role in the film based on Dostoevsky’s novel Crime and Punishment. The acting debut turned out to be successful, and Lukino Visconti took Franco Zeffirelli as an assistant to the film “Earth is trembling,” which later received the Venice Film Festival award.
Later, he works with other directors, but still remains an artist. Franco is still collaborating with Luchino Visconti, not only as an assistant, but also as a designer. After a series of extraordinary and bold scenery, Zeffirelli offers work on the scenery of "Cinderella" in La Scala. He agrees to this proposal, with the proviso that he himself will act as a director. "Cinderella" was a resounding success, which allowed Zeffirelli to stage many successful performances.
Franco Zeffirelli: filmography
After successful work in the theater, the director decides to try himself in the cinema. His first paintings were: "Camping" and "The Taming of the Shrew," but the director himself called the work "theatrical" and even conservative. Critics dubbed Zeffirelli too pretentious and extravagant. In fact, such reviews were triggered by an abundance of canonical dialogues and scenes.
However, the next cinematic experience of Zeffirelli will not only bring him worldwide fame, but will make him one of the model filmmakers as such. This painting was the interpretation of Romeo and Juliet. Franco Zeffirelli not only revived the classics, he showed it in a new light.
In addition, he became the director of such works:
- "Tea with Mussolini."
- Jane Eyre.
- "Sparrow".
- Don Carlo
- "Hamlet".
- "Endless love".
- "La Traviata."
And even in films, he is not only a director, but primarily an artist. He, like no other, managed to select actors who became legends. Not all artists who worked with him gained fame. Many have not gone beyond the debut in the paintings of Zeffirelli. Franco himself was peculiar to his actors. He perceived them as shades: with one, the whole picture will fail, and the other is capable of introducing masterpiece notes into it.
Eternal Themes
An artist who wants to perpetuate himself in history sooner or later turns to immortal themes. Zeffirelli, as an extremely ambitious person, also does not lag behind this tradition and decides to implement two religious films: “Brother Sun, Sister Moon” and “Jesus of Nazareth”.
The first tells of the youth of Francis of Assisi, who does not agree with the tenets of the Catholic Church. After a long struggle with the pope himself, he decides to establish his own school - Franciscanism.
"Jesus of Nazareth" - a description of the life path of Jesus. In the film, he is presented as a historical hero.
Prizes and awards
Franco was nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award in 1996. He also won the title of best director for the film "Romeo and Juliet." The same award was awarded to him after the rental of the painting "Brother Sun, Sister Moon." He subsequently received the David di Donatello Prize.
In 1969, the director became the owner of the Oscar. And in 1982, he received “Golden Raspberry” for his artistic direction in the work “Endless Love”. After 2 years, Franco receives a prize in two categories of the British Academy for his work on Triviat. In 1986, the director was awarded the Golden Palm Branch for his work Othello.
Personal life
For a long time, Franco Zeffirelli did not talk about the details of his personal life to reporters. This is due to the fact that he is a representative of homosexuals. In Europe, silence on the details of personal life is considered good form.
However, in an interview, he said that his first experience with girls happened at the age of 16. Subsequently, homosexual nature became dominant. Same-sex love in Florence was common.
Director Franco Zeffirelli is distinguished by the fact that in each of his work he shows the power of youth and youth of conviction. Any of his paintings becomes a masterpiece, bribing the audience with an ideal combination of actors and discussion of eternal topics.