Italian filmmaker Paolo Taviani dies at 92

Paolo Taviani, the acclaimed Italian filmmaker who along with his brother Vittorio directed classics like Padre Padrone and San Michele aveva un gallo, died on February 29, 2024 in Rome at age 92 after a brief illness. Born in San Miniato on November 8, 1931, Taviani began his cinematic journey after a chance viewing of Rossellini's Paisà, which he described as an unexpected emotion that revealed cinema's power to recall and understand wartime experiences. Together with Vittorio (who died in 2018), he created films that blended passion, culture, heritage, and mystery. Their 2015 film Maraviglioso Boccaccio, freely adapted from Boccaccio's Decameron, featured Italian stars Paola Cortellesi, Kim Rossi Stuart, Carolina Crescentini, Michele Riondino, and Jasmine Trinca. Their last co-directed film, Una questione privata (2017), based on Beppe Fenoglio's novel and praised by Le Monde for its still-relevant blend of art, politics, and history, was followed by Paolo's solo debut Leonora addio in 2022, which premiered at the Berlinale. The film follows the adventurous journey of Pirandello's ashes from Rome to Agrigento, concluding with Pirandello's final story Il chiodo. An unfinished project, Il canto delle Meduse starring Kasia Smutniak, remains incomplete.