We The Italians | Italian cinema: Piero Tosi and Italy at the Oscars

Italian cinema: Piero Tosi and Italy at the Oscars

Italian cinema: Piero Tosi and Italy at the Oscars

  • WTI Magazine #18 Feb 21, 2014
  • 1947

WTI Magazine #18    2014 Feb, 21
Author : Simone doc Bracci      Translation by:

 

Without ever having won a prize in his life, without ever having set foot in the United States, without having a face in the limelight, Piero Tosi is so recognized and appreciated for his work, that he will be awarded with an Oscar during the 2014 edition of the Academy Awards. An honorary award for the great Tuscan costume designer, born in Sesto Fiorentino on April 10, 1927, which then is about to turn 87.

A student of Ottone Rosai, gave the best of himself in the films of Luchino Visconti: "Senso", "Rocco e i suoi fratelli" (Rocco and His Brothers), "Le notti bianche" (White Nights), "Il Gattopardo" (The Leopard). Last year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which annually awards the Oscars, has decided to give him a lifetime achievement award which will be given him by Claudia Cardinals.

But Piero Tosi is just the last case of Italians who triumphed in the most glamorous night in Hollywood, the mecca of cinema where anyone approaching this business at least once desires to arrive. This year "La Grande Bellezza" (The Great Beauty) may be the last in order of time: but let's not be impatient, and let's take a brief look at the past instead.

When Sophia Loren, in the former Kodak Theatre, yelled "Roberto!" during the "ceremony" of the stars, the whole Italy clenched around that little Tuscan man, even if for a few moments, when he took our flag on top of the world of cinema. During his speech - one of the finest ever felt during the Oscars - Roberto Benigni thanked cinema and "L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle" ("the love that moves the sun and other stars" which is the last verse of the Paradise in Dante's Divine Comedy), after being awarded for "La vita è bella" (Life is Beautiful).

That was one of the highest moments of Italian cinema, one of the many statues ended up in the hands of an Italian master craftsman of cinema: as happened to Vittorio De Sica, who was the first Italian to win an Academy Award in 1948 for "Sciuscià" (Shoeshine), up to authors such as Federico Fellini, Pietro Germi, Carlo Rambaldi, Ennio Morricone, Gabriele Salvatores, Giuseppe Tornatore and many others. All of them were able to bring their name across national boundaries and expand the culture of Italian cinema in the world. Will we be able to match them, will we have such great new professionals?

We could cite many, especially in the technical side: as Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo (set design), Pietro Scalia (costumes), Nino Rota (soundtrack). Since when Cristina Comencini was competing with "La bestia nel cuore" (The Beast in the Heart), however, as Best Foreign Language Film we are still in stand by. Superstition does not allow us to make predictions regarding if this could be a good year: but we still remain hopeful. What is for sure is that, like in any other profession, the Italian cinema gives his best when it puts real effort in its endeavors. Let's always remember about it in a future perspective.