Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (b. November 8, 1931, and September 20, 1929, respectively, both in San Miniato, Tuscany, Italy) are noted Italian film directors and screenwriters. They are brothers, who have always worked together, each directing alternate scenes.
Paolo Taviani's wife Lina Nerli Taviani has been costume designer of many of their films.
At the Cannes Film Festival the Taviani brothers won Palme d'Or and the FIPRESCI prize for Padre padrone in 1977 and Grand Prix du Jury for La notte di San Lorenzo in 1982.
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They started their career as journalists. In 1960 they came to the world of cinema directing, with Joris Ivens the documentary L'Italia non è un paese povero (Italy is not a poor country), and they went on, directing with Valentino Orsini two films Un uomo da bruciare (1962) and I fuorilegge del matrimonio (1963).
Their first autonomous film was I sovversivi (The Subversive) (1967), with which they anticipated the events of '68. With actor Gian Maria Volonté they rose to fame with Sotto il segno dello scorpione (Under the Sign of Scorpio) (1969) where one can see the echoes of Brecht, Pasolini and Godard.
In 1971 they co-signed the media campaign against Milan's police commissioner Luigi Calabresi, published in the magazine L'espresso.
The revolutionary theme is present both in San Michele aveva un gallo (1971), a superb adaptation of Tolstoy's novel The Divine and the Human, a film greatly appreciated by critics, and in the film Allonsanfan (1974), where Mastroianni plays an ex-revolutionary who has served a long term in prison and sees his idealistic youth in a much more realistic light, and nevertheless gets entangled in a new attempt in which he no longers believes.
Their next film Padre padrone (1977) (Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival), taken from a novel by Gavino Ledda, speaks of the struggle of a Sardinian shepheard against the cruel rules of his patriarchal society. In Il prato (1979) there are neorealistic echoes, while La notte di San Lorenzo (Saint Lorenzo's night) (1982) narrates, in a fairy-tale tone, a marginal event in the days before the end of World War II, in Tuscany, as seen through the eyes of some village people. The film was awarded the Special Jury Award in Cannes.
Kaos (1984) - again a literary adaptation - is a poignantly beautiful and poetical film in episodes, taken from Luigi Pirandello's Short Stories for a year. In Il sole anche di notte (1990) the Taviani brothers transposed in 18th century Naples the story from Tolstoy's "Father Sergius".
From then onwards, the Taviani's inspiration proved faltering. Successes like Le affinità elettive, (1996), from Goethe) and an attempt to woo the international audiences like Good morning Babilonia, {1987), on the pioneers of cinema history, alternate with much inferior films, commercial and critical disasters like Fiorile (1993) and Tu ridi (1996), inspired by the characters and short stories of Pirandello.
In the 2000s, the two directors turned successfully to television films and miniseries. They gave a respectful adaptation of Tolstoy's Resurrection (2001) and Luisa Sanfelice (2004) a sort of romantic-popular ballad from a book by Alexandre Dumas.
Literary adaptations continue with La masseria delle allodole (2007), presented at the Berlin Film Festival in the section 'Berlinale Special'.
In chronological order:
Nicola Piovani their favourite composer: eight films together, from La notte di San Lorenzo to Luisa Sanfelice; a series only interrupted for Le affinità elettive (music by Carlo Crivelli).
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