TSPDT

Key Production Country: Italy, France
Key Genres: Drama, Romance, Romantic Drama, Coming-of-Age, Thriller, Period Film
Key Collaborators: Ennio Morricone (Composer), Massimo Quaglia (Editor), Nicola Di Pinto (Character Actor), Blasco Giurato (Cinematographer), Andrea Crisanti (Production Designer), Tano Cimarosa (Character Actor), Vittorio Cecchi Gori (Producer), Lajos Koltai (Cinematographer), Mario Morra (Editor), Salvatore Cascio (Leading Character Actor), Leopoldo Trieste (Leading Character Actor), Francesco Frigeri (Production Designer)

"A former photographer and documentary director who began directing feature films in the mid-80s, his evocative view of postwar childhood and movie enthrallment, Cinema Paradiso (1988), won the Academy Award for best foreign film." - The Film Encyclopedia, 2012

"Giuseppe Tornatore is one of the few authentically original voices to emerge in the cinematic world over the past quarter century. He champions community values, solidly grounded in emotional engagement and interaction, over the brash, loud, self-proclaiming egocentricity that has increasingly dominated western societies since the nineteen-eighties and, paradoxically, isolated the individual ever more intensely within his own subjective world. Yet, viewed superficially, his narratives appear old-fashioned, flirting frequently and precariously with overt melodrama and sentimentalism while managing nevertheless to mount a powerful critique of what our societies have become and what they have sacrificed that makes them the poorer." - Doug Thompson, University of Hull

"Underlying much of Tornatore's work is a recurring theme of the ways the system can corrupt the individual, his characters often desperate people struggling to survive in times of personal and social instability. Although his success has been forged with films that touch the soul of Sicily, Tornatore has moved into English-language films and away from his beloved island. He is not prolific in output, but Tornatore has crafted himself a key place among Italy's premier contemporary filmmakers." - Russ Hunter (501 Movie Directors, 2007)

"Giuseppe Tornatore is an Italian film director and screenwriter who, after the Golden era from the ‘50s to the ‘70’s led by Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti, restored the impact of Italian cinema in the ’80s… Tornatore’s interest in creative expression began at the tender age of 16 as a staging theatre director in Eastern Sicily for plays by Luigi Pirandello and Eduardo De Filippo. Tornatore was inspired by his mentor, the photographer Mimmo Pintacuda, who later inspired the character of Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) in Tornatore’s masterpiece Cinema Paradiso (1988). From 1981 up to now, Tornatore directed 12 feature films and 10 documentaries, not to mention a prolific output as a producer, writer, and film editor.,, Striking the spectators’ heartstrings, while masterfully addressing significant psychological and social issues, Tornatore’s films help their audience reflect on relationship with their past." - Chris Pak (BMJ Journals, 2023)

"Giuseppe Tornatore is an Italian film director and screenwriter known for his visually stunning and emotionally resonant films. He has directed a number of critically acclaimed films over the years, including Cinema Paradiso, Malèna, and The Legend of 1900. Tornatore’s films often explore themes of love, loss, nostalgia, and the power of art to transcend time and space." - Matt Crawford (Filmmaking Lifestyle)

"I was lucky enough to grow up in Italy during the sixties and seventies and see such a huge variety of films, some masterpieces, some good, some terrible, that they were all an education for me. From the age of about seven to 26, I would see at least one movie per day in a theater. That was a time when you could see a new film by a master like Fellini, a giallo by someone like Dario Argento, or a B-movie exploitation piece of shit, but I learned something from them all. " - Giuseppe Tornatore (The Hollywood Interview, 2014)