Mini biography

Giuseppe Tornatore (May 27, 1956, Bagheria, Italy)

Born in Bagheria (province of Palermo) on 27 May 1956, Giuseppe Tornatore began his cinema career in the field of documentary (Le minoranze etniche in Sicilia won him a prize at the Salerno Film Festival) and television (for Rai he directed programmes including Diario di Guttuso).

After collaborating with Giuseppe Ferrara on Cento giorni a Palermo (1984), he made his full-length film debut two years later with Il camorrista, a hard-hitting portrait of a Naples underworld boss.

Franco Cristaldi subsequently produced his successful Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1988), which won a prize at Cannes and the Oscar for the best foreign film.

In 1990 he directed the inward-looking and angst-ridden Everybody's Fine (Stanno tutti bene), in which Marcello Mastroianni was cast in the part of an old man; a year later he directed the episode of Il cane blu in Especially on Sunday (La domenica specialmente).

In 1994, Tornatore decided to change register and directed the ambitious A Pure Formality (Un pura formalità), a disturbing, ambiguous tale with splendid performances from Roman Polanski and Gérard Depardieu.

He subsequently returned to his native Sicily with The Star Maker (L’uomo delle stelle) (1995), a description of the laborious rise and dramatic fall of a small-time Roman confidence trickster, set in post-war Sicily.

He finally tried his hand with a big-budget movie with The Legend of the Pianist on the Ocean (La leggenda del pianista sull’oceano) (1998), adapting Baricco's short monologue Novecento with cloying pomposity.

His most recent film is Malèna.

Director - Selected filmography

1. Correspondence | La corrispondenza (2016)
   
2. Malena (2000)
   
3. The Legend of 1900 - La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano (1998)
   
4. Cinema Paradiso | Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1988)
   
5. The Star Maker - L'uomo delle stelle (1995)
   
6. A Pure Formality | Una pura formalità (1994)
   
7. Everybody Is Fine - Stanno Tutti Bene (1991)