DI VENANZO, GIANNI

(1920-1966)

Cinematographer. One of the most respected cinematographers of the postwar period, Di Venanzo served an early apprenticeship as camera assistant toAldo TontionLuchino Visconti's landmark film,Ossessione(Obsession, 1943), and in the immediate postwar period was assistant toOtello MartelliandG.R.Aldoon many of the classic neorealist films, includingRoberto Rossellini'sPaisa(Paisan, 1946) and Visconti'sLa terra trema(The Earth Trembles, 1948).He graduated to director of photography onCarlo Lizzani'sAchtung! Banditi!(Attention! Bandits!1951) and thereafter worked on over 40 films with most of the leading Italian directors includingLuigi Comencini,Lina WertmiiHer,Federico Fellini, andMario Monicelli, for whom he photographed the famousI soliti ignoti(Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958). He developed an especially strong partnership withMichelangelo Antonioni, with whom he worked on all the latter's early black-and-white films, with the exception ofL'avventura(The Adventure, 1960), and withFrancesco Rosi, for whom he photographed all the films up to and includingLe mani sulla citta(Hands over the City, 1963), earning theNastro d'argentoforI magliari(The Magliari, 1959) and again forSalvatore Giuliano(1961).

A particularly innovative and creative cinematographer, Di Venanzo experimented with lighting and new techniques to develop a highly distinctive personal style that was nevertheless flexible enough to serve both the austerity of Antonioni'sLa notte(The Night, 1961) and the sumptuousness of Fellini'sOtto e mezzo(8V2, 1963). Following his premature death from cancer in 1966, he was awarded a posthumous Nastro d'argento for his color photography on Fellini'sGiulietta degli spiriti(Juliet of the Spirits, 1965).