VITTORIO TAVIANI

16 Apr

(20 September 1929 - 15 April 2018)

Vittorio Taviani, the Italian film director and screenwriter, who has died aged 88, worked with his younger brother Paolo, making over twenty films from 1954 onwards. Many of their subjects were historical or docudramas such as Outlaws of Love and Allonsanfan. They had an international hit with Padre Padrone (1977), a true story about a Sicilian man who educated himself out of his poor upbringing. Many of their films won awards, including Padre Padrone, La notte di San Lorenzo (The Night of the Shooting Stars, 1982), Caesar Must Die and Rainbow: A Private Affair. Their other films included Kaos, Good Morning Babylon (set in Hollywood), Night Sun and Fiorile. One of their last films together, Wondrous Boccaccio (2015), dealt with young people trying to save themselves from the plague in the 14th century.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Michael Darvell

Michael Darvell trained as a librarian at Watford and in Surrey before joining Ealing Libraries where he became Music Librarian for the borough. He edited Masthead, the magazine of the University of North London School of Librarianship, The Surrealist, the staff magazine of Surrey County Library, and contributed to the Assistant Librarian and London Librarian professional journals. A freelance film reviewer since 1970, he has written for Film, Films Illustrated, Film Review, Movie Maker and Radio Times, as well as editing Montage, the London film societies magazine, for ten years. A change of career saw him joining What’s On in London as Features Editor and he eventually stepped into the shoes of the late F. Maurice Speed (founding father of Film Review annual) as the magazine’s Editor. From 2007 to 2015, he was co-editor of the Film Review annual with Mansel Stimpson. As well as writing about films, Michael has reviewed theatre for The Stage newspaper, and has written about music theatre and cabaret for the Classical Source and Musical Theatre Review websites. He is also a former restaurant critic for the ViewLondon website. Michael has been a member of the London Film Critics’ Circle since 2005.

VITTORIO TAVIANI

JOHN STRIDE

R. LEE ERMEY