Giuseppe Tornatore

Giuseppe Tornatore (born 27 May 1956) is an Italian film director and screenwriter. Born in Bagheria near Palermo, Tornatore developed an interest in acting and the theatre from at least the age of 16 and put on works by Luigi Pirandello and Eduardo De Filippo. He worked initially as a freelance photographer. Then, switching to cinema, he made his debut with Le minoranze etniche in Sicilia (The Ethnic Minorities in Sicily), a collaborative documentary film which won a Salerno Festival prize. He then worked for RAI before releasing his first full-length film, Il Camorrista, in 1985. This evoked a positive response from audience and critics alike and Tornatore was awarded the Silver Ribbon for best new director. Tornatore's best known screen work was released in 1988: Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, a film narrating the life of a successful film director who has returned to his native town in Sicily for the funeral of his mentor. This obtained worldwide success and won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Subsequently Tornatore released several other films. In 2007 he won the Silver George for Best Director at the 29th Moscow International Film Festival for The Unknown Woman.

Works

Il camorrista - Una serie di Giuseppe Tornatore

Release Date: 2025-03-04

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 5

Vote Count: 1

Titanus 1904

Release Date: 2024-10-17

Character: Self

Sergio Leone: The Italian Who Invented America

To mark the recent thirtieth anniversary of Sergio Leone’s death, this documentary sets out to pay tribute to one of the great legends of world cinema. The singular artistic vision of Sergio Leone has transcended national borders, creating the Spaghetti Western genre and transforming the international cinematic panorama forever with his innovative stylistic and narrative solutions, which have now become part of the language of the movies. The film, which is enriched with precious archive footage from the Cineteca di Bologna, including rare audio recordings and film clips shot behind the scenes, sees for the first time the direct participation of the Leone family and has interviews both with Leone’s longtime collaborators and with icons of Hollywood who have been profoundly influenced by his work.

Release Date: 2022-10-20

Character: Self

Vote Count: 55

Ennio

A portrait of Ennio Morricone, the most popular and prolific film composer of the 20th century, the one most loved by the international public, a two-time Oscar winner and the author of over five hundred unforgettable scores.

Release Date: 2022-02-17

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Character: Self

Vote Count: 334

All Star - Ritorno al cinema

A short movie about coming back to the cinema after lockdowns.

Release Date: 2021-08-31

Character: Proiezionista

Vote Count: 7

Good Morning, the Wind Blows

Release Date: 2020-12-10

Character: Himself

Citizen Rosi

The narrative wanders through Rosi’s films, not in the order they were shot but following the chronology of the historical facts they deal with. The documentary therefore not only narrates Rosi’s work, but also portrays half a century of Italian history.

Release Date: 2019-11-18

Character: Self

Vote Count: 6

Cecchi Gori - Una famiglia italiana

Release Date: 2019-10-26

Character: Self

Vote Count: 8

Release Date: 2016-01-14

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Vote Count: 401

Born in the U.S.E. - Nato negli Stati Uniti d'Europa

Release Date: 2015-03-01

Character: Self

Giuseppe Tornatore - Ogni film un'opera prima

Release Date: 2014-11-18

Character: Self

Vote Count: 1

Enrico Lucherini - Ne ho fatte di tutti i colori

Release Date: 2014-10-23

Character: Self

Mafia Millionaires

The rise and fall of a Neapolitan criminal clan through the story of a boss and his family, divided between the aspiration for a bourgeois life and the deep impulses of oppression. Thirty years of history of one of the most beautiful and discussed cities in the world, the dream of a boy who is overwhelmed by the desire for power as an end in itself, to become the nightmare of a man and those who live next to him.

Release Date: 2014-10-19

Department: Crew

Job: Thanks

Vote Count: 38

Tutte le storie di Piera

Release Date: 2014-06-26

Cinema Italiano: Moments of Truth

Documentary about Italian cinema.

Release Date: 2014-06-17

Character: Self

C'era una volta il prossimamente

A passionate cavalcade through decades of "coming attractions"

Release Date: 2014-04-22

Character: Self

The Best Offer

Virgil Oldman is a world renowned antiques expert and auctioneer. An eccentric genius, he leads a solitary life, going to extreme lengths to keep his distance from the messiness of human relationships. When appointed by the beautiful but emotionally damaged Claire to oversee the valuation and sale of her family’s priceless art collection, Virgil allows himself to form an attachment to her – and soon he is engulfed by a passion which will rock his bland existence to the core.

Release Date: 2013-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 2889

Il Mago di Esselunga

The young Sardino and his parents are shopping at Esselunga when it becomes an adventurous voyage.

Release Date: 2011-03-10

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 5

Dante Ferretti: Production Designer

The Documentary Dante Ferretti – Production Designer retraces the life and the career of Dante Ferretti, the famous Italian Artist and Production Designer.

Release Date: 2010-09-10

Character: Self

Vote Count: 3

L'ultimo gattopardo - Ritratto di Goffredo Lombardo

Release Date: 2010-09-07

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Character: Self

Vote Count: 2

Everybody's Fine

Eight months after the death of his wife, Frank Goode looks forward to a reunion with his four adult children. When all of them cancel their visits at the last minute, Frank, against the advice of his doctor, sets out on a road trip to reconnect with his offspring. As he visits each one in turn, Frank finds that his children's lives are not quite as picture-perfect as they've made them out to be.

Release Date: 2009-12-04

Department: Writing

Job: Original Film Writer

Vote Count: 998

Baaria

Giuseppe Tornatore traces three generations of a Sicilian family in in the Sicilian town of Bagheria (known as Baarìa in the local Sicilian dialect), from the 1930s to the 1980s, to tell the story of the loves, dreams and delusions of an unusual community.

Release Date: 2009-09-25

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 641

Franco Cristaldi e il suo cinema Paradiso

Release Date: 2009-09-16

A Bear and a Mouse in Paradise

The making of Cinema Paradiso and the characters of Toto and Alfredo

Release Date: 2006-12-01

Character: Self

Sartoria Tirelli - Vestire il cinema

Release Date: 2006-10-15

Character: Self

The Unknown Woman

Irena, a Ukrainian woman, comes to Italy looking for a job as a maid. She does everything she can to become a beloved nanny for an adorable little girl, Thea. However, that is just the very beginning of her unknown journey.

Release Date: 2006-10-09

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 349

Marcello, una vita dolce

After shooting to fame with Federico Fellini’s “La Dolce Vita” (1960), actor Marcello Mastroianni (1924-1996) starred in more than 160 films in his nearly half-a-century career. Directors Mario Canale and Annarosa Morri look into the melancholic charm of one of the most famous Italian actors through interviews with his two daughters, Barbara and Chiara; directors Fellini and Luchino Visconti; actresses Claudia Cardinale and Anouk Aimee; and in archival footage of Mastroianni himself. The subject matter ranges from Mastroianni’s passion for kidney-bean pasta and his addiction to the telephone to his famous laziness, humility and talent. Shown in black-and-white, Mastroianni — elegantly holding a cigarette in between his fingers — is undeniably the dandy.

Release Date: 2006-05-21

Character: Self

Vote Count: 2

Under a False Name

A mysterious writer is involved in a love affair with his stepson's wife, leading to a web of intrigue and desire.

Release Date: 2004-11-10

Department: Crew

Job: Thanks

Vote Count: 24

The Filmmaker and the Labyrinth

A documentary looking at the life and films of Francesco Rosi.

Release Date: 2004-06-17

Character: Self

The Magic of Fellini

Documentary with interviews and clips of Fellini's movies.

Release Date: 2002-01-27

Character: Self (archive footage)

Vote Count: 5

A Dream of Sicily

A 52-minute documentary profile of Giuseppe Tornatore featuring interviews with director and extracts from his early home movies as well as interviews with director Francesco Rosi and painter Peppino Ducato, set to music by the legendary Ennio Morricone.

Release Date: 2000-06-09

Character: Self

The Prince's Manuscript

A solitary, disappointed, proud and educated old man meets and becomes the teacher of an intelligent, clumsy, middle-class, young would-be writer.

Release Date: 2000-03-31

Department: Production

Job: Producer

Vote Count: 2

Malena

During WWII, a teenage boy discovering himself becomes love-stricken by Malèna, a sensual woman living in a small, narrow-minded Italian town.

Release Date: 2000-03-16

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 2293

The Legend of 1900

The story of a virtuoso piano player who lives his entire life aboard an ocean liner. Born and raised on the ship, 1900 learned about the outside world through interactions with passengers, never setting foot on land, even for the love of his life. Years later, the ship may be destroyed, and a former band member fears that 1900 may still be aboard, willing to go down with the ship.

Release Date: 1998-10-28

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 2301

Bakunin's Son

Based on a novel of Segio Atzeni. By a lot of interviews, usualy contradictory, it discovers the many lifes of Tullio Saba, a Sardinian miner, thief, singer, union organizer, rebel...

Release Date: 1997-10-03

Department: Production

Job: Producer

The Man with the Cigar in His Mouth

Release Date: 1997-08-06

Character: Self

The Star Maker

The adventures and deceptions of a photographer who travels through small villages of 1950s Sicily pretending to work for the big film studios in Rome.

Release Date: 1995-09-21

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 185

Lo schermo a tre punte

Release Date: 1995-09-08

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 1

A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village's theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater's projectionist.

Release Date: 1988-11-17

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Character: Projectionist (uncredited)

Vote Count: 4517

The Professor

An imprisoned murderer carries out a violent bid for control of Naples' underworld crime syndicate.

Release Date: 1986-09-12

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Vote Count: 118

One Hundred Days in Palermo

In the late 1970s and early 80s, assassinations in Sicily get the attention of Communist deputy, Pio La Torre, who appeals to General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa to become prefect in Palermo and take on the Mafia. Dalla Chiesa approaches the job with the same focus and methods he used in hunting down the Red Brigade.

Release Date: 1984-04-06

Department: Writing

Job: Screenplay

Vote Count: 43

Il sognatore indiscreto

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Diario di Guttuso

Release Date: 1982-01-01

Department: Directing

Job: Director

With Her Eyes

Once again, an extraterrestrial mission concluded, and my request for leave was approved more smoothly than anticipated. Yet, unlike before, this time I was required to carry a special pair of "eyes" during my vacation. The owner of these "eyes" would share all five senses with me throughout this period. Together, we traversed countless places and held many conversations. "She" shifted between melancholy and resolve, alternating between rationality and poetry. Growing curious, I began yearning to uncover more of "her" story—and so, as my vacation ended, I embarked on a quest to do exactly that…

Department: Writing

Job: Writer

Paradiso

Giuseppe Tornatore’s Oscar-winning film “Cinema Paradiso,” about a marvellous Sicilian cinema where a boy nicknamed Toto embarks on a lifelong love affair with the movies, is being spun off into a high-profile TV series that Tornatore will write and direct. The six-episode “Paradiso” show is being developed by prominent Rome-based producer Marco Belardi (“Perfect Strangers”) through his new shingle Bamboo Production, which he launched in February.

Department: Directing

Job: Director

Episode Count: 6