Franco Rossi

Franco Rossi (19 April 1919, Florence – 5 June 2000, Rome) was an Italian film screenwriter and director, mainly known for having directed the six-hour Italian-German-British-Swiss TV mini-series Quo Vadis? in 1985. Rossi was born in Florence, Italy. He studied law and then began to work on theatre. He was assistant director of Mario Camerini, Luis Trenker, Renato Castellani, Aldo Vergano. Rossi made his debut as a director with the crime thriller I Falsari. He went on to have his first success with Il seduttore, starring by Alberto Sordi, and among Rossi's other films were The Woman in the Painting (Amici per la pelle, 1955), Odissea Nuda (1961), "Smog" (1962), Three Nights of Love (1964), an episode of Le bambole (1965), and Porgi l'altra guancia with Bud Spencer in (1974). Rossi was one of the first established Italian film directors also doing work for television, being one of the three directors for the 1968 mini-series L'Odissea. His largest TV undertaking was directing the international co-production of the six-hour mini-series Quo Vadis? in 1985.

Works

The Odyssey

Odysseus' journey, told in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. After fighting in the Trojan War, Odysseus spends years trying to return home to Itaka.

Release Date1968-03-24

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count8

Vote Count9

Quo Vadis?

Drama about love and intrigues in ancient Rome during the times of Nero.

Release Date1985-02-24

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count6

Vote Count7

Il giovane Garibaldi

Miniseries about the early life of Garibaldi.

Release Date1974-02-10

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter

Episode Count6

Eneide

A 7 part adaptation of the epic tale of Aeneas, written by Virgil as the Roman sequel to Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.

Release Date1971-12-19

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count7

Vote Count3

Ein Kind mit Namen Jesus

Release Date1987-12-03

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count4

Vote Count1

The Two Missionaries

Two missionaries come into conflict with the authorities when they turn their missionary into a parrot farm. The Bishop of Maracaibo calls them his 'black sheep' and the Monsignore has been called to check on their behavior. Like usual, our heroes help the poor to defend themselves and provoke some funny fist fights in the process.

Release Date1974-12-21

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count265

The Witches

Five short stories loosely dealing with the roles of women in society. A superstar actress travels to a mountain resort, only to evoke jealousy from women and lust from men. A woman offers to take an injured man to the hospital. A widowed father and his son seek for a new wife/mother. A man seeks revenge for a woman's honor. A bored housewife tries to explain to her husband that he's not as romantic as he used to be.

Release Date1967-02-22

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count71

Complexes

In the first episode, Quirino tries to conquer co-worker Gabriella. In the second episode, Prof. Beozi ends up in a raid of the police in a local for homosexuals when trying to avoid a scandal. In the third episode, Guglielmo passes all tests in order to become reader of the television news brilliantly, although the commission works with all subtleness's to exclude him.

Release Date1965-08-15

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count102

Caprice Italian Style

The film consists of six short stories created by different directors, but all the stories share one thing: a warm irony to current events.

Release Date1968-04-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count41

High Infidelity

Four different directors present lighthearted stories about married Italian couples and their dilemmas with jealousy, sex and love.

Release Date1964-01-22

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count10

Odissea

Odysseus' journey told in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. After fighting in the Trojan War, Odysseus spends years trying to return home to Itaka.

Release Date1968-03-24

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count25

The Dolls

This semi-amusing sex (romance) comedy has four separate stories: "The Telephone Call", written by Rodolfo Sonego, directed by Dino Risi. "A Treatise on Eugenics", written by Tullio Pinelli from a story by Luciano Salce and Steno, directed by Luigi Comencini. "The Soup", written by Rodolfo Sonego and Luigi Magni, directed by Franco Rossi. "Monsignor Cupid", written by Leo Benvenuti and Piero de Bernardi from a story by Boccaccio, directed by Mauro Bolognini.

Release Date1965-01-27

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count17

Pure as a Lily

Anthony M. Wilson is an English gentleman. He has a string of restaurants in London plus a beautiful house decorated with all the trendy art he can get.

Release Date1976-03-11

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

A Child Called Jesus

The film attempts to fill in the "missing years" of Jesus, from ages 3 through 12. When King Herod fearing that the Messiah has indeed been born, orders that all Hebrew male children under the age of three be slain, Joseph moves his family near Egypt. Here, Jesus, sensing His divinity, expresses a desire to return to Nazareth. Travelling homeward with His mother Mary, Jesus flashes forward to events that will unfold in his adult life.

Release Date1987-01-08

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count10

Friends for Life

Mario and the new kid Franco gradually become the best of friends, but their friendship is tested when one of them wins a competition.

Release Date1955-09-16

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

L'altra metà del cielo

Don Vincenzo, a priest sent to a mining village in Australia, seeks to redeem the Sicilian Susanna.

Release Date1977-03-04

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count4

La cognatina

After a few years in a boarding school for nuns, young and provocative Monica returns to the village, eager to win as many children as possible. All men lose their heads for her. Later her sister, Sabina who runs a pharmacy arrives with her new husband and she can't manage to keep her hands off her new brother-in-law. It succeeds so well that it reduces the entire local soccer team to its knees.

Release Date1975-02-11

DepartmentProduction

JobProduction Supervisor

Vote Count2

Ivanhoe, the Norman Swordsman

Year 1000. At the death of King Henry, Stefano Cunningam seized with the power of power making himself crowned king of England and Scotland. Ten years later, a young Norman, Ivanhoe, returning home from the Holy Land where he fought, finds the nation prey to the violence and cruelty of Stephen and his acolytes. Conducted in prison for his opposition to the usurper, Ivanhoe learns from York, former advisor to King Henry, also held prisoner, that the "Norman sword", symbol of the power of the king of England and Scotland is not in the hands of Stefano, but is guarded by a Scottish clan loyal to the dynasty of Henry.

Release Date1971-04-29

DepartmentProduction

JobProduction Secretary

Vote Count2

The Seducer

Alberto is forced to face his wife and his two lovers at the same time.

Release Date1954-12-29

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count16

A Rose for Everyone

A vivacious woman tries to please all of her lovers but finds she can't handle the jealousy that erupts among them.

Release Date1967-01-18

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Smog

An ambitious Italian attorney has his flight delayed in Los Angeles. The vapid lawyer goes to some parties with some Italians living there and has a brief affair with a beautiful Italian expatriate.

Release Date1962-10-04

DepartmentWriting

JobStory

Vote Count5

Controsesso

A vivid assortment consisted of three acts taken from the lives of modern 1960s Italians, always in orbit around the restless theme of sexual inhibition and the pursuit of pleasure in sex.

Release Date1964-11-30

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count10

Non faccio la guerra, faccio l'amore

Release Date1966-12-23

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Three Nights of Love

Omnibus film with individual segments directed by Renato Castellani, Luigi Comencini and Franco Rossi; all of them starring the radiant Catherine Spaak as "out of place" women longing for love, in a Sicillian village, a monastery, and a modern Italian urban setting, respectively.

Release Date1964-10-08

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

The Mighty Anselmo and His Squire

After having challenged the German Ottone to single combat for the hand of Leonza, the bishop's niece, the valiant knight Anselmo da Montebello, leaves for Rome where he must deliver a precious relic to the Pope and obtain a sum of twenty-thousand crowns in order to participate in the third crusade in the Holy Land. He is accompanied by Gian Puccio, his sluggish squire, drawn by the money and by the charm of ... Leonzia.

Release Date1972-12-30

DepartmentProduction

JobProduction Supervisor

Vote Count6

Solo per te Lucia

A young mother tries to hide her son from the man who is in love with her.

Release Date1952-10-09

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Everyone's in Love

Giovanni is a young widower with a son who is attracted to the charming teen Allegra.

Release Date1959-04-09

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count3

La passeggiata

A meek and simple-minded boarding school teacher falls in love with a prostitute and gets the boot from school. He tries to have her change her way of living but she is very hard to convince. When she finally realizes he really loves her it is too late.

Release Date1953-01-27

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Death of a Friend

Two young people trickle, steal and exploit prostitutes.

Release Date1960-01-19

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

Vote Count5

Love at First Sight

Love at First Sight is an Italian movie directed by Franco Rossi.

Release Date1958-04-17

DepartmentWriting

JobScreenplay

The Counterfeiters

Producers of phony currency become the object of a crackdown by law enforcement agencies.

Release Date1951-09-21

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Ci sarà un giorno (Il giovane Pertini)

Release Date1993-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Odissea nuda

A director arrives in Tahiti to make a film, but soon he lets himself be captured by the exotic charm of the local places and beauties. with E. Salerno.

Release Date1961-04-20

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Scream for Help

Release Date1994-03-13

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Outlaws

Turi, having returned to Sicily from abroad, learns that his sister Maruzza is the lover of Cosimo Barrese, a militant of the Movement for the Independence of Sicily, who, abandoned by everyone, has become a bandit. The two would like to get married, but life as an outlaw seems an insurmountable obstacle. Turi asks for revenge on the bandit who has dishonored the family and uses a shady and devious lawyer to drive him into a trap.

Release Date1950-06-09

DepartmentDirecting

JobFirst Assistant Director

Vote Count1

Youth March

Release Date1969-09-10

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Calypso

CALYPSO (1958) was entirely shot on location in the Antilles archipelago with mostly non-professional actors and was released in colour and Cinemascope. It was a kind of follow-up to the previous Italian exotic documentary films from the 1950s and especially to L´ULTIMO PARADISO.

Release Date1957-02-22

DepartmentWriting

JobWriter