RISI, MARCO

(1951-)

Director, producer, screenwriter. Son of veteran directorDino Risi, Marco began his apprenticeship in the cinema as an assistant to his uncle,Nelo Risi, onUna stagione all'inferno(A Season in Hell, 1970). After further experience as second unit director on Duccio Tessari'sZorro(1975) andLa madama(Cops, 1976), Risi directedAppunti su Hollywood(Notes on Hollywood, 1978), a four-episode televisiondocumentaryon American cinema. He subsequently cowrote the screenplays forCaro papa(Dear Papa, 1979) andSono fotogenico(I'm Photogenic, 1980), both directed by his father, before making his own feature directorial debut withVado a vivere da solo(I'm Going to Live by Myself, 1981).After making several other only moderately successful light comedies, he embarked on a series of more socially committed films, beginning withSoldati, 365 giorni all'alba(Soldiers, 1987).Mery per sempre(Forever Mary, 1989), set in a Sicilian reform school for young criminals, won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, and its sequel,Ragazzi fuori(Boys on the Outside, 1990), earned Risi theDavid di Donatellofor best direction in 1991. In the same year hisMuro di gomma(The Invisible Wall, 1991), an investigative feature on the Ustica air disaster of 1980, was nominated for the Golden Lion at theVenice Festival.

In 1992, together with Maurizio Tedesco, he founded the production company Sorpasso Film, with which he financed not only his own films but also the debut films of a number of emerging younger directors, includingFerzan Ozpetek'sHamam, il bagno turco(Steam:The Turkish Baths, 1997), for which he shared theNastro d'argentoas best producer. Among his subsequent films wereII branco(The Pack, 1994), a disturbing film about gang rape;L'ultimo capodanno(Humanity's Last New Year's Eve, 1998), a grotesque social farce mixing elements of thecommedia all'italianawith American pulp fiction; andTre mogli(Three Wives, 2001), a female road movie through South America. Most recently he has directedMaradona, la mano di Dio(Maradona, The Hand of God, 2006), a celebratory but not uncritical biopic of the legendary soccer player.