Ennio Morricone was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classical works, Morricone is widely considered one of the most prolific and greatest film composers of all time. His filmography includes more than 70 award-winning films, all Sergio Leone's films since A Fistful of Dollars, all Giuseppe Tornatore's films since Cinema Paradiso, The Battle of Algiers, Dario Argento's Animal Trilogy, 1900, Exorcist II, Days of Heaven, several major films in French cinema, in particular the comedy trilogy La Cage aux Folles I, II, III and Le Professionnel, as well as The Thing, Once Upon a Time in America, The Mission, The Untouchables, Mission to Mars, Bugsy, Disclosure, In the Line of Fire, Bulworth, Ripley's Game, and The Hateful Eight. His score to The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) is regarded as one of the most recognizable and influential soundtracks in history. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
The cinema of Italy comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Since its beginning, Italian cinema has influenced film movements worldwide. Italy is one of the birthplaces of art cinema and the stylistic aspect of film has been the most important factor in the history of Italian film. As of 2018, Italian films have won 14 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film as well as 12 Palmes d'Or, one Academy Award for Best Picture and many Golden Lions and Golden Bears.
Federico Fellini, was an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his distinctive style, which blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness. He is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. His films have ranked highly in critical polls such as that of Cahiers du Cinéma and Sight & Sound, which lists his 1963 film 8+1⁄2 as the 10th-greatest film.
Sardinian or Sard is a Romance language spoken by the Sardinians on the Western Mediterranean island of Sardinia.
The year 1998 in film involved many significant films, including Shakespeare in Love, Saving Private Ryan, American History X, The Truman Show, Primary Colors, Rushmore, Rush Hour, There's Something About Mary, The Big Lebowski, and Terrence Malick's directorial return in The Thin Red Line. DreamWorks SKG released its first two animated films: Antz and The Prince of Egypt. The Pokémon theatrical film series started with Pokémon: The First Movie. Warner Bros. Pictures celebrated its 75th anniversary.
Audie Leon Murphy was an American soldier, actor, songwriter, and rancher. He was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II. He received every military combat award for valor available from the United States Army, as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism. Murphy received the Medal of Honor for valor that he demonstrated at the age of 19 for single-handedly holding off a company of German soldiers for an hour at the Colmar Pocket in France in January 1945, and then leading a successful counterattack while wounded and out of ammunition.
Never Say Never Again is a 1983 spy film directed by Irvin Kershner. The film is based on the 1961 James Bond novel Thunderball by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original story by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, and Fleming. The novel had been previously adapted in a 1965 film of the same name. Never Say Never Again was not produced by Eon Productions, the usual producer of the Bond series, but by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm, and was distributed by Warner Bros. instead of United Artists. The film was executive produced by Kevin McClory, one of the original writers of the Thunderball storyline. McClory retained the filming rights of the novel following a long legal battle dating from the 1960s.
Valeria Golino is an Italian actress and director. She is best known to English-language audiences for her roles in Rain Man, Big Top Pee-wee and the two Hot Shots! films, particularly the olive-in-the-belly-button scene. In addition to David di Donatello, Silver Ribbon, Golden Ciak and Italian Golden Globe awards, she is one of four actresses to have twice won the Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival.
Mario Adorf is a German actor, considered to be one of the great veteran character actors of European cinema. Since 1954, he has played both leading and supporting roles in over 200 film and television productions, among them the 1979 Oscar-winning film The Tin Drum. He is also the author of several successful mostly autobiographical books.
Giovanna Mezzogiorno is an Italian theatre and film actress.
Ugo Tognazzi was an Italian actor, director, and screenwriter.
Mariangela Melato was an Italian cinema and theater actress. She began her stage career in the 1960s. Her first film role was in Thomas e gli indemoniati (1969), directed by Pupi Avati. She played in many memorable films during the 1970s, a period which was considered her golden age, and she received much praise for her roles in films like The Seduction of Mimi (1972), Love and Anarchy (1973), Nada (1974), Swept Away (1974), Todo modo (1976), Caro Michele (1976) and Il gatto (1978). Melato also starred in several English-language productions as well, notably Flash Gordon (1980). She died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 71.
Vittorio Sodano (Victor) is an Italian make-up artist. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Makeup for his work in Apocalypto (2006) and for Il divo (2010). Born in Naples on 1 September 1974, at age 16, in London, he began his work as a make-up artist as a sculptor and prosthodontist in a laboratory for film special effects. In 1996 he made his début in cinema with the film Prima che il tramonto by Stefano Incerti, for which he won an award for make-up and special effects at the Locarno Film Festival. With considerable knowledge in the field of special effects make-up and application of prosthesis he began to assert himself in the Italian and European cinema, becoming a personal makeup artist of Italian's actresses Margherita Buy, Laura Morante, Mariangela Melato and Valeria Golino. Vittorio Sodano has also taught at several academies of fine arts.
Alda Merini was an Italian writer and poet. Her work earned the attention and the admiration of other Italian writers, such as Giorgio Manganelli, Salvatore Quasimodo, and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Raffaele Festa Campanile is an Italian television author, screenwriter, film director, music producer. Son of the painter Anna Salvatore and of film director Pasquale Festa Campanile.
The Bonanno crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, and in the United States, as part of the criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia.
Dalila Di Lazzaro is an Italian model, actress and writer.
