Italian filmmaker Vittorio Taviani dies at 88

Vittorio Taviani, the elder half of the acclaimed Taviani brothers filmmaking duo, died on April 15, 2018, after a long illness. He was 88. Born in San Miniato, Tuscany, on September 20, 1929, Taviani and his brother Paolo created some of Italy's most celebrated films, including 'La notte di San Lorenzo' (1982) and 'Cesare deve morire' (2012), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Their debut feature 'Un uomo da bruciare' (1962), co-directed with Valentino Orsini, starred Gian Maria Volonté and was inspired by the life of Sicilian socialist laborer Salvatore Carnevale, murdered in 1955. Their final joint project was 'Maraviglioso Boccaccio' (2015), an adaptation of five tales from Boccaccio's Decameron set during the 1348 plague in Florence. Paolo Taviani recently directed 'Una questione privata' alone, presented at the Rome Film Festival in October 2017.