Liliana Cavani Biography
Liliana Cavani (1933 - ) is a director and screenwriter. Born to a working-class family, she graduated in Ancient Literature at the University of Bologna. Immediately afterwards, however, he decided to dedicate himself to the world of entertainment by attending the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome where he graduated with two short films (made between 1961 and 1962) dedicated to the theme of racism. He landed on television for which he made a series of thematic documentaries until 1965 (among others, 'The History of the Third Reich', 'The Women of the Resistance', 'The Age of Stalin'). In 1966, again on behalf of Rai, he made his debut feature film 'Francesco d'Assisi', applauded at the Venice Film Festival and released in theaters only three years later. The following film, 'Galileo', instead suffers a sort of censorship from the TV executives. After the unhappy experience of 'I cannibali' (1969, her first film produced by the private industry), Cavani returned to work in Rai filming 'L'sistenza' (1971) and 'Milarepa' (1974). Always between cinema and TV, in 1974 he signed 'The Night Porter' for the big screen. Three years later it was the turn of 'Beyond good and evil' while in 1981 it was the turn of 'La pelle', based on the novel of the same name by Curzio Malaparte. In 1989 he returned to the story of Francis of Assisi with 'Francesco', with Mickey Rourke. In 2002 he directed 'Ripley's Game', based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith. In addition to cinema and TV, Cavani is also active in the theatre. He conducts numerous operas for the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Ravenna Festival, as well as for theaters such as the Paris Opéra and the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. On the latter stage he directed, among other things, 'La Traviata' and 'Un Ballo in Maschera', as part of the celebrations for Giuseppe Verdi's centenary. In 1996 she was appointed Board Member of Rai.
