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Marcello Gatti

Marcello Gatti

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Biography

Marcello Gatti (Rome, February 9, 1924 - Rome, November 26, 2013) was an Italian cinematographer. He was one of Italy's most important cinematographers. During his long career, he won five Nastri d'argento, photographed two Oscar-nominated films The Battle of Algiers by Gillo Pontecorvo and The Four Days of Naples by Nanni Loy, and another Palme d'Or at Cannes Chronicle of the Embers years; he worked among others with Roman Polanski, Carlo Lizzani, George Pan Cosmatos and Giancarlo Giannini, who chose him for his directorial debut with Ternosecco. The film for which he is often remembered is The Battle of Algiers (1966), which won the Golden Lion at Venice and had three Oscar nominations, standing out precisely because of a memorable black-and-white, grainy, documentary photography inspired by the style of cinéma vérité [2] that Gatti had already begun to elaborate in Nanni Loy's Le quattro giornate di Napoli (1962), also nominated for an Oscar. With Pontecorvo he also shot Queimada and Ogro. After the success of The Battle of Algiers Roman Polański entrusted him with his 1972 Italian film Che?, starring Marcello Mastroianni. Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina brought him back to Algeria to make Chroniques des années de braise, Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1975. Among the more than 150 films he worked on were several poliziotteschi, including Mark the Policeman and The Police Have Their Hands Tied; thrillers such as The Black-Bellied Tarantula; and comedies such as Mr. Robinson, Monstrous Story of Love and Adventure, Bluff - A Tale of Swindles and Swindlers, and Three Tigers vs. Of the five Nastri d'Argento he obtained, two he won in the same year, 1970, taking the prize both in the black and white category for Ansano Giannarelli's Sierra Maestra and in the color category for Enrico Maria Salerno's Anonimo veneziano. Remaining of his television work are Nanni Loy's Specchio segreto; scripts with Gianni Morandi such as Voglia di cantare; the fifth and sixth series of the crime thriller La piovra with Vittorio Mezzogiorno's poignant farewell; Carlo Lizzani's Assicurazione sulla morte; and Moses with Burt Lancaster. Always close to the ideals of the left, Gatti was arrested in 1943 for defacing a portrait of Mussolini on the walls of Cinecittà, being sentenced to five years in prison, later changed to confinement; and in 1968 he occupied the Centro sperimentale di cinematografia with students and other Italian film personalities such as Marco Bellocchio and Bernardo Bertolucci. He was a longtime president of the Italian Association of Cinematographers (Aic).

Known For

Moses the Lawgiver
N/A

Moses the Lawgiver (Italian: Mosè) is a six-part 1975 television miniseries directed by Gianfranco De Bosio and starring Burt Lancaster as Moses. Produced by ITC and RAI, the Italian-British co-production was filmed in Rome and on location in Israel and Morocco. Inspired by the Ten Commandments, Moses embarks on an arduous journey to freedom, determined to escape slavery and spread the Word of the Lord.

Moses the Lawgiver

1974
The Battle of Algiers
7.9

Paratrooper commander Colonel Mathieu, a former French Resistance fighter during World War II, is sent to Algeria to reinforce efforts to squelch the uprisings of the Algerian War. There he faces Ali la Pointe, a former petty criminal who, as the leader of the Algerian Front de Liberation Nationale, directs terror strategies against the colonial French government occupation. As each side resorts to ever-increasing brutality, no violent act is too unthinkable.

The Battle of Algiers

1966
The Con Artists
7.1

Belle Duke, in order to get revenge on her former lover Philip Bang, organize his jail break. But instead of Philip is the Italian Felice Brianza, AKAS Felix, to escape. Now Felix is obliged to help Philip to escape. He will succeeded and from that moment on the two will join to defraud Belle. The swindle plot become more complicate when Felix falls in love for Philip's daughter.

The Con Artists

1976
What?
5.4

A young American woman traveling through Italy finds herself in a strange Mediterranean villa where nothing seems quite right.

What?

1972
Mr. Robinson
6.1

A shipwreck strands a modern Italian businessman on a desert island. Like Robinson Crusoe he must find a way to return to civilization; unlike him--he's a 20th-century man, a totally different case.

Mr. Robinson

1976
Kapo
6.9

Determined to survive at any price, Edith, a young Jewish woman deported to an extermination camp, manages to survive by accepting the role of kapo, a privileged prisoner whose mission is to ruthlessly guard other prisoners.

Kapo

1960
Position Wanted
8.3

Maria is a housmaid and she is being engaged to Berto for fifteen years. Berto has not a lasting job so he is waiting for the death of his uncle Matteo to come into an inheritance. In the meantime Maria goes on with her work, first in the house of an unfaithful wife; then for an actor and his wife on the verge of leaving each other and last for Raffaele who wants to marry her. At last uncle Matteo dies...

Position Wanted

1951
Three Tigers Against Three Tigers
5.1

Don Cimbolano - a priest in a small town. Oscar - a offender escaped from prison. Philip - attorney loser. They don't lose heart and find ways out of the most incredible situations.

Three Tigers Against Three Tigers

1977
Massacre in Rome
6.3

In the Nazi occupied city of Rome, an assault on an SS brigade draws retaliation from the military governship. "Massacre in Rome" is the true story of how this partisan attack led to the mass execution of Italian nationals under the orders of SS-Lieutenant Colonel Kappler.

Massacre in Rome

1973
Chronicle of the Years of Fire
6.7

A meticulous chronicle of the evolution of the Algerian national movement from 1939 until the outbreak of the revolution on November 1, 1954, the film unequivocally demonstrates that the "Algerian War" is not an accident of history, but a slow process of suffering and warlike revolts, uninterrupted, from the start of colonization in 1830, until this "Red All Saints' Day" of November 1, 1954. At its center, Ahmed gradually awakens to political awareness against colonization, under the gaze of his son, a symbol of the new Algeria, and that of Miloud, half-mad haranguer, half-prophet, incarnation of Popular memory of the revolt, the liberation of Algeria and its people.

Chronicle of the Years of Fire

1975
The Salamander
5.5

An Italian policeman investigates a series of murders involving people in prominent positions. Left behind at each murder scene is a drawing of a salamander. The policeman begins to suspect these murders are linked to a plot to seize control of the government.

The Salamander

1981
Burn!
6.8

The professional mercenary Sir William Walker instigates a slave revolt on the Caribbean island of Queimada in order to help improve the British sugar trade. Years later he is sent again to deal with the same rebels that he built up because they have seized too much power that now threatens British sugar interests.

Burn!

1969
The Wonders of Aladdin
5.2

Young Aladdin has a series of wild adventures after he discovers a magic lamp containing a genie.

The Wonders of Aladdin

1961
The Black Belly of the Tarantula
6.1

Inspector Tellini investigates serial crimes where victims are paralyzed while having their bellies ripped open with a sharp knife.

The Black Belly of the Tarantula

1971
The Tall Women
7.6

Seven women are the only survivors of an Apache attack on a wagon train. They must cross the desert on foot to escape the Indians who are hunting them.

The Tall Women

1966
Il bell'Antonio
7.1

Problems arise for Antonio Magnano when he is unable to consummate his marriage to the beautiful Barbara Puglisi and his virility is called into question. Despite the fact that he loves his beautiful wife and they have otherwise been happily married for a year, his problem becomes a source of contention for all concerned.

Il bell'Antonio

1960
The Anonymous Venetian
7.3

Without mentioning the reason, Venetian musician Enrico invites his ex-wife Valeria to visit him, and her heart is broken again during their last days together.

The Anonymous Venetian

1970
Operation Ogre
6.9

Spain, 1973. Dictator Francisco Franco has ruled the country since 1939 with an iron fist; but he is now a very old and sick man. The future of the weakened regime is in danger. Admiral Carrero Blanco is his natural successor. The Basque terrorist gang ETA decides that he must die to prevent the dictatorship from continuing.

Operation Ogre

1979
The Strange Night
5.4

Aldo, a middle class family man decides to enjoy his last night alone while his family is away on vacation. He meets a pretty girl and takes her to his home. While he is in the kitchen preparing drinks, a shot goes off.

The Strange Night

1967
The Four Days of Naples
7.5

September 1943. After Italy surrenders to the Allies, people in Naples believe the war is finally over, but soon they realize Germans are still in control — and as ruthless as ever. Armed with makeshift weapons, civilians rise up en masse against the invaders — and overwhelming odds.

The Four Days of Naples

1962