
Franco Rossi
Directing
Biography
Franco Rossi (19 April 1919, Florence – 5 June 2000, Rome) was an Italian film screenwriter and director, mainly known for having directed the six-hour Italian-German-British-Swiss TV mini-series Quo Vadis? in 1985. Rossi was born in Florence, Italy. He studied law and then began to work on theatre. He was assistant director of Mario Camerini, Luis Trenker, Renato Castellani, Aldo Vergano. Rossi made his debut as a director with the crime thriller I Falsari. He went on to have his first success with Il seduttore, starring by Alberto Sordi, and among Rossi's other films were The Woman in the Painting (Amici per la pelle, 1955), Odissea Nuda (1961), "Smog" (1962), Three Nights of Love (1964), an episode of Le bambole (1965), and Porgi l'altra guancia with Bud Spencer in (1974). Rossi was one of the first established Italian film directors also doing work for television, being one of the three directors for the 1968 mini-series L'Odissea. His largest TV undertaking was directing the international co-production of the six-hour mini-series Quo Vadis? in 1985.
Known For

A young mother tries to hide her son from the man who is in love with her.
Solo per te Lucia

Drama about love and intrigues in ancient Rome during the times of Nero.
Quo Vadis?

Miniseries about the early life of Garibaldi.
Il giovane Garibaldi

Odysseus' journey, told in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. After fighting in the Trojan War, Odysseus spends years trying to return home to Itaka.
The Odyssey

No description available.
Ein Kind mit Namen Jesus

Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.
The Witches

Two missionaries come into conflict with the authorities when they turn their missionary into a parrot farm. The Bishop of Maracaibo calls them his 'black sheep' and the Monsignore has been called to check on their behavior. Like usual, our heroes help the poor to defend themselves and provoke some funny fist fights in the process.
The Two Missionaries

This semi-amusing sex (romance) comedy has four separate stories: "The Telephone Call", written by Rodolfo Sonego, directed by Dino Risi. "A Treatise on Eugenics", written by Tullio Pinelli from a story by Luciano Salce and Steno, directed by Luigi Comencini. "The Soup", written by Rodolfo Sonego and Luigi Magni, directed by Franco Rossi. "Monsignor Cupid", written by Leo Benvenuti and Piero de Bernardi from a story by Boccaccio, directed by Mauro Bolognini.
The Dolls

A 7 part adaptation of the epic tale of Aeneas, written by Virgil as the Roman sequel to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
Eneide

In the first episode, Quirino tries to conquer co-worker Gabriella. In the second episode, Prof. Beozi ends up in a raid of the police in a local for homosexuals when trying to avoid a scandal. In the third episode, Guglielmo passes all tests in order to become reader of the television news brilliantly, although the commission works with all subtleness's to exclude him.
Complexes

Twenty years after the end of the war, a German submarine has not yet surrendered and continues to wander the seas. Its travelers include a half-witted officer, a meager and dazed crew, and Ombrina, a girl rescued from a shipwreck when she was only one year old and adopted by the men of the strange vessel.
Make Love, Not War

Odysseus' journey told in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. After fighting in the Trojan War, Odysseus spends years trying to return home to Itaka.
Odissea

Omnibus film with individual segments directed by Renato Castellani, Luigi Comencini and Franco Rossi; all of them starring the radiant Catherine Spaak as "out of place" women longing for love, in a Sicillian village, a monastery, and a modern Italian urban setting, respectively.
Three Nights of Love

A meek and simple-minded boarding school teacher falls in love with a prostitute and gets the boot from school. He tries to have her change her way of living but she is very hard to convince. When she finally realizes he really loves her it is too late.
La passeggiata

Don Vincenzo, a priest sent to a mining village in Australia, seeks to redeem the Sicilian Susanna.
L'altra metà del cielo

A vivacious woman tries to please all of her lovers but finds she can't handle the jealousy that erupts among them.
A Rose for Everyone

The film consists of six short stories created by different directors, but all the stories share one thing: a warm irony to current events.
Caprice Italian Style

Four different directors present lighthearted stories about married Italian couples and their dilemmas with jealousy, sex and love.
High Infidelity

After having challenged the German Ottone to single combat for the hand of Leonza, the bishop's niece, the valiant knight Anselmo da Montebello, leaves for Rome where he must deliver a precious relic to the Pope and obtain a sum of twenty-thousand crowns in order to participate in the third crusade in the Holy Land. He is accompanied by Gian Puccio, his sluggish squire, drawn by the money and by the charm of ... Leonzia.
The Mighty Anselmo and His Squire

A vivid assortment consisted of three acts taken from the lives of modern 1960s Italians, always in orbit around the restless theme of sexual inhibition and the pursuit of pleasure in sex.