Vittorio Storaro

Vittorio Storaro
Storaro at Cannes in 2001
Born	(1940-06-24) 24 June 1940 (age 84) Rome, Italy
Education	Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia
Occupation	Cinematographer
Years active	1960–present
Organizations	American Society of Cinematographers Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia Cinematografica
Known for	The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970) The Conformist (1970) Last Tango in Paris (1972) 1900 (1976) Apocalypse Now (1979) Reds (1981) The Last Emperor (1987) Dick Tracy (1990) Café Society (2016) Wonder Wheel (2017)

Vittorio Storaro, A.S.C., A.I.C. (born 24 June 1940), is an Italian cinematographer widely recognized as one of the best and most influential in cinema history, for his work on numerous classic films including The Conformist (1970), Apocalypse Now (1979), and The Last Emperor (1987). In the course of over fifty years, he has collaborated with directors such as Bernardo Bertolucci, Francis Ford Coppola, Warren Beatty, Woody Allen, and Carlos Saura.

He has received three Academy Awards for Best Cinematography for the films Apocalypse Now, Reds (1981), and The Last Emperor, and is one of three living persons who has won the award three times, the others being Robert Richardson and Emmanuel Lubezki.

Early life

Storaro in Camerimage Festival 23 in 2015, talking about how color affects people physically and psychologically

Storaro was born in Rome. The son of a film projectionist, Storaro began studying photography at the age of 11. He went on to formal cinematography studies at the national Italian film school, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, when he was 18.^[1]

Career

Storaro is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential cinematographers of all time.^[2][3][4][5] He has worked with many important film directors, in particular Bernardo Bertolucci, with whom he has had a long collaboration.^[6] His philosophy is largely inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's theory of colors, which focuses in part on the psychological effects that different colors have and the way in which colors influence our perceptions of different situations.^[7]

He first worked with Bertolucci on The Conformist (1970). Set in fascist Italy, the film has been described as a "visual masterpiece".^[8]

Also in 1970, he photographed The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, the directorial debut of Dario Argento and a landmark film in the giallo genre.^[9]

The first American film that Storaro worked on was Apocalypse Now (1979). Director Francis Ford Coppola gave him free rein on the film's visual look.^[10] Apocalypse Now earned Storaro his first Academy Award.^[11]

He worked with Warren Beatty for the first time on Reds (1981), and ended up winning his second Academy Award.^[12]

Storaro won a third Academy Award for The Last Emperor (1987), directed by Bertolucci.^[12] Three years later he received a nomination, but did not win, for the Beatty film Dick Tracy.^[13]

In 2002, Storaro completed the first in a series of books that articulate his philosophy of cinematography.^[14]

He was the cinematographer for a BBC co-production with Italian broadcaster RAI of Verdi's Rigoletto over two nights on the weekend of 4 and 5 September 2010.^[15]

Woody Allen's Café Society (2016) was the first film that Storaro shot digitally; he used the Sony F65 camera.^[16]

In 2017, Storaro was honored with the George Eastman Award.^[17] The same year he also attended the New York Film Festival at which he debated with Ed Lachman on cinematography and its transition to digital.^[18]

His other film credits include 1900, Last Tango in Paris, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist, One from the Heart, Bulworth, The Sheltering Sky, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Ladyhawke, Tango, and Goya en Burdeos.

With his son Fabrizio, he created the Univisium format system to unify all future theatrical and television movies into one respective aspect ratio of 2.00:1.^[19] As of 2023, this unification has not happened, and the universal replacement of 4:3 televisions by large, wide-screen displays greatly reduces the need to modify scope-ratio films for home theater presentation.

Personal life

Storaro is known for stylish, fastidious, and flamboyant personal fashion. Francis Ford Coppola once noted, "Vittorio is the only man I ever knew that could fall off a ladder in a white suit, into the mud, and not get dirty."^[20]

Filmography

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1961	Etruscologia	Giancarlo Romitelli
1963	Un Delitto	Luigi Bazzoni
1966	L'urlo	Camillo Bazzoni	Also writer
	Rapporto segreto
	Il Labirinto	Silvio Maestranzi	Documentary short
	Sortilegio	Luigi Bazzoni
	Sirtaki
1982	Arlecchino	Giuliano Montaldo
1989	Life without Zoe	Francis Ford Coppola	Segment of New York Stories
2005	Ciro	Stefano Veneruso	Segment of All the Invisible Children

Feature film

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1962	Attack of the Normans	Giuseppe Vari	With Marco Scarpelli
1969	Giovinezza giovinezza	Franco Rossi
	Delitto al circolo del tennis	Franco Rossetti
1970	The Bird with the Crystal Plumage	Dario Argento
	The Conformist	Bernardo Bertolucci
	The Spider's Stratagem		With Franco Di Giacomo
1971	The Fifth Cord	Luigi Bazzoni
	'Tis Pity She's a Whore	Giuseppe Patroni Griffi
1972	Last Tango in Paris	Bernardo Bertolucci
1973	Malicious	Salvatore Samperi
	Brothers Blue	Luigi Bazzoni
	Corpo d'amore	Fabio Carpi
	Revolt of the City	Giuliano Montaldo
1974	Identikit	Giuseppe Patroni Griffi
1975	Footprints on the Moon	Luigi Bazzoni Mario Fanelli
	Orlando Furioso	Luca Ronconi
1976	1900	Bernardo Bertolucci
	Submission	Salvatore Samperi
1979	Agatha	Michael Apted
	Apocalypse Now	Francis Ford Coppola
	Luna	Bernardo Bertolucci
1981	Reds	Warren Beatty
1982	One from the Heart	Francis Ford Coppola	With Ronald Víctor García
1985	Ladyhawke	Richard Donner
1987	Ishtar	Elaine May
	The Last Emperor	Bernardo Bertolucci
1988	Tucker: The Man and His Dream	Francis Ford Coppola
1990	Dick Tracy	Warren Beatty
	The Sheltering Sky	Bernardo Bertolucci
1992	Tosca	Brian Large
1993	Little Buddha	Bernardo Bertolucci
1996	Taxi	Carlos Saura
1998	Bulworth	Warren Beatty
	Tango	Carlos Saura
1999	Goya in Bordeaux
2000	Mirka	Rachid Benhadj
	Picking Up the Pieces	Alfonso Arau
2004	Zapata: el sueño del héroe
	Exorcist: The Beginning	Renny Harlin
2005	Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist	Paul Schrader
2008	The Trick in the Sheet	Alfonso Arau
2009	I, Don Giovanni	Carlos Saura
2010	The Trick in the Sheet	Alfonso Arau
2012	Parfums d'Alger	Rachid Benhadj
2015	Muhammad: The Messenger of God	Majid Majidi
2016	Café Society	Woody Allen
2017	Wonder Wheel
2018	A Rose in Winter	Joshua Sinclair
2019	A Rainy Day in New York	Woody Allen
2020	Rifkin's Festival
2021	The King of All the World	Carlos Saura
2023	Coup de chance	Woody Allen
TBA	Bach	Carlos Saura

Documentary film

Year	Title	Director
1994	Roma Imago Urbis: Parte II - L'immortalità	Luigi Bazzoni
	Roma Imago Urbis: Parte I - Il mito
	Roma Imago Urbis: Parte V - I volti
	Roma Imago Urbis: Parte III - Gli acquedotti
	Roma Imago Urbis: Parte VI - Le gesta
1995	Flamenco	Carlos Saura
2010	Flamenco Flamenco

Television

Year	Title	Director
1971	Eneide	Franco Rossi

Miniseries

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1974	Orlando furioso	Luca Ronconi	With Arturo Zavattini
1983	Wagner	Tony Palmer
1986	Peter the Great	Marvin J. Chomsky Lawrence Schiller
2000	Frank Herbert's Dune	John Harrison
2007	Caravaggio	Angelo Longoni

TV movies

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1992	Tosca: In the Settings and at the Times of Tosca	Brian Large
	Writing with Light: Vittorio Storaro	David M. Thompson	Documentary film
2000	La traviata	Pierre Cavassilas
2010	Rigoletto a Mantova

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards

Year	Category	Title	Result	Ref.
1980	Best Cinematography	Apocalypse Now	Won	[21]
1982		Reds	Won
1988		The Last Emperor	Won
1991		Dick Tracy	Nominated

British Academy Film Awards

Year	Category	Title	Result	Ref.
1980	Best Cinematography	Apocalypse Now	Nominated	[22]
1983		Reds	Nominated	[23]
1989		The Last Emperor	Nominated	[24]
1991		The Sheltering Sky	Won	[25]

American Society of Cinematographers

Year	Category	Title	Result
1988	Outstanding Cinematography	The Last Emperor	Won
1991		Dick Tracy	Nominated
2001	Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Limited Series	Dune	Nominated
	Lifetime Achievement Award		Won

European Film Awards

Year	Category	Title	Result	Ref.
2000	Best Cinematography	Goya en Burdeos	Won	[26]

Primetime Emmy Awards

Year	Category	Title	Result
1986	Best Cinematography for a Miniseries or Special	Peter the Great	Nominated
2001		Frank Herbert's Dune	Won

Cannes Film Festival

Year	Category	Title	Result	Ref.
1998	Technical Grand Prize	Tango, no me dejes nunca	Won	[27]

International Film Festival of India

Year	Category	Result	Ref.
2020	Lifetime Achievement Award	Won	[28]

British Society of Cinematographers

Year	Category	Title	Result
1979	Best Cinematography	Apocalypse Now	Nominated
1988		The Last Emperor	Won
1990		Dick Tracy	Nominated

National Society of Film Critics

Year	Category	Title	Result
1972	Best Cinematography	The Conformist	Won

New York Film Critics Circle Awards

Year	Category	Title	Result
1987	Best Cinematography	The Sheltering Sky	Won
1990		The Last Emperor	Won

Los Angeles Film Critics Association

Year	Category	Title	Result
1981	Best Cinematography	Reds	Won
1988		The Last Emperor	Won

George Eastman Award

Year	Category	Result
2017	Lifetime Achievement Award	Won

Goya Awards

Year	Category	Title	Result
1996	Best Cinematography	Flamenco (de Carlos Saura)	Nominated
1999		Tango, no me dejes nunca	Nominated
2000		Goya en Burdeos	Won

References

1. "Back in Time: Vittorio Storaro AIC, ASC / The Early Life of Mohammed". British Cinematographer. 27 May 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
2. Kay, Jeremy (16 October 2003). "And the 11 most influential cinematographers of all time are..." Screen Daily. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
3. "Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro Warns of "Major Problem" in the Field". The Hollywood Reporter. 4 June 2016. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
4. "The 10 Most Visually Stunning Movies Shot by Vittorio Storaro". Taste of Cinema - Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists. 15 September 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
5. Jones, Jonathan (9 July 2003). "Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro reveals his inspiration". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. OCLC 900948621.
6. Pizzello, Stephen (6 July 2018). "Storaro and Bertolucci Celebrated at Milan International Film Festival". American Society of Cinematographers. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
7. "Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC personally details the richly hued artistic strategy he created to shoot Woody Allen's period drama". American Cinematographer. 30 November 2017.
8. Berardinelli, James (1994). "Review: The Conformist". ReelViews. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
9. Gallant, Chris (7 June 2018). "Where to begin with giallo". BFI. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
10. Pizzello, Stephen (24 August 2017). "Flashback: Apocalypse Now". American Cinematographer.
11. "Mighty Tome: Vittorio Storaro AIC ASC / The Art of Cinematography". British Cinematographer. 3 June 2015. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
12. "Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro: Master of Lights and Colors". italoamericano.org. 20 September 2016. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
13. Bob Fisher (2004). "Vittorio Storaro: Maestro of Light". ICG Magazine. International Cinematographers Guild. Archived from the original on 14 November 2017 – via scrapsfromtheloft.com.
14. Jones, Jonathan (9 July 2003). "Painting with light". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
15. Adetunji, Jo (25 July 2010). "Verdi's Rigoletto given 'cinematic' makeover for BBC". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
16. Giardina, Carolyn (15 July 2016). "Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro on Filming 'Cafe Society' Digitally: "You Can't Stop Progress"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
17. "Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC Honored with George Eastman Award". American Society of Cinematographers. 21 March 2017. Retrieved 22 April 2019.
18. Chris O'Falt (13 October 2017). "Digital Cinematography Smackdown: Vittorio Storaro and Ed Lachman Debate, With Love". IndieWire. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
19. Joe Foster (24 October 2017). "The remarkable rise of the Univisium 2:1 aspect ratio". RedSharkNews. Retrieved 23 April 2019.
20. Kees van Oostrum (2 January 2018). "President's Desk: Men in White Suits - The American Society of Cinematographers". American Cinematographer.
21. "Vittorio Storaro". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 31 March 2020.
22. "Past Winners and Nominees – Film Nominations 1979". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 22 January 2008.
23. "Past Winners and Nominees – Film Nominations 1982". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 22 January 2008.
24. "Past Winners and Nominees – Film Nominations 1988". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 22 January 2008.
25. "Past Winners and Nominees – Film Nominations 1990". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved 22 January 2008.
26. "European Film Awards 2000 – The Winners". European Film Awards. Archived from the original on 15 August 2007. Retrieved 20 January 2008.
27. "Festival de Cannes: Tango". festival-cannes.com. Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 17 July 2010.
28. Shekhar, Mimansa (16 January 2021). "IFFI 2021: Everything to know about the film festival". Indian Express.

General

• "Vittorio Storaro Movie Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 6 February 2008.
• "Vittorio Storaro > Filmography". Allmovie. Retrieved 22 January 2008.
• "Search Page". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 21 September 2008. Retrieved 16 January 2008.. Note: User must define search parameters, i.e. "Vittorio Storaro."

Further reading

• Masters of Light - Conversations with cinematographers (1984) Schaefer, S & Salvato, L., ISBN 0-520-05336-2
• Writer of Light: The Cinematography of Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC (2000) Zone, R., ISBN 0-935578-18-8
• Vittorio Storaro: Writing with Light: Volume 1: The Light (2002) Storaro, V., ISBN 1-931788-03-0

External links

• Vittorio Storaro at IMDb
• International Cinematographers Guild Interview
• Vittorio Storaro Website (Italian or English)