Nanni Moretti Biography
Nanni Moretti, whose real name is Giovanni, was born in Brunico in 1953. After classical studies, he attempted to work as an assistant director, but without success. At the age of twenty, he purchased a Super 8 movie camera with the proceeds from the sale of his stamp collection and shot his first short films, "The Defeat" and "Paté de Bourgeois". Around that time, the Taviani brothers offered him a small part in their film "Padre Padrone". His first feature film, "Io sono un autarchico", was presented at the Filmstudio and subsequently purchased by Rai. In 1977 his second feature film, "Ecce bombo", was presented in competition at Cannes. With the 1981 film, "Sogni d'oro", he won the special jury grand prize of the Venice exhibition, with Italo Calvino as president. Nanni founded the production company "Sacher Film" in 1987 together with his friend Angelo Barbagallo, in homage to the dessert he adored more than others. In 1989, the film "Palombella rossa", rejected by the official competition of the Venice Film Festival, was screened during the critics' week. A short distance away follows the documentary "La cosa", on the transformation of the Italian communist party into the current PDS, which was screened by Rai and some arthouse cinemas. In 1991 Sacher produced "Il portaborse" by Daniele Luchetti, in which Moretti plays the part of a cynical socialist minister. His seventh feature film, "Caro diario", quickly became a social phenomenon and achieved enormous critical success, especially in France, where Moretti was often defined as the new Fellini of Italian cinema. His most recent successes include 1998's "April" and "The Son's Room," which received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001. In 2003, he filmed "The Anguished Cry of the Predatory Bird - 20 Cuts of April", a documentary in twenty episodes of different lengths that uses images from the film "Aprile", which at the time were not included in the film. Finally, in the same year, he directed the short film "The Last Customer", which tells the stories of the Gardini family. In recent years, Moretti has made a film inspired by the figure of Berlusconi, entitled "Il Caimano" (2005).
