Carlo Mazzacurati
Born2nd March 1956
Padua
Disappeared22nd January 2014
Padua
NationalityItalian
Occupation(s)Director, Producer, Actor
StyleComedy, Drama

Carlo Mazzacurati (2 march 1956 – 22 january 2014) was an Italian film director and screenwriter born in Padua.

Biography

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First son of five of the engeneering Giovanni Mazzacurati (director of the Consorzio Venezia Nuova from 1983 to 2005), he started early to show interest in acting, for which he received some approvals; from this experience his quotation "We should act a little bit more in our life. Theatre allows you to break schemes, cinema allows you to overturn the reality". In the seventies at the University of Bologna he was one of the first students of the new degree course DAMS (Disciplines of Art, Music and Show). He was one of the cineclub Cinema Uno's entertainers with Piero Tortolina in Padua. In 1979 he realized in 16 millimetri Vagabondi, which in 1983 won a distribution prize offered by Gaumont at the film festival Filmmaker in Milan. But after the consequent demobilisation of the French film company the movie could not be realesed. He decided to move to Rome, where he worked on the texts of some tv shows and in 1985 he wrote together with Franco Bernini the screenplay of Notte italiana which he realised in 1987, starring Marco Messeri as the protagonist and Nanni Moretti as producer.

Two years later he realised Il prete bello, adaptation of the book of the same name by Goffredo Parise and set in Vicenza. He collaborated in the writing of Marrakech Express (finalist of the Premio Solinas) together with Gabriele Salvatores, Fracchia contro Dracula by Neri Parenti and Domani accadrà by Daniele Luchetti. He conquered the Silver Lion in 1994 for the movie Il toro, with Diego Abatantuono as the main protagonist. He played minor roles in four films by Nanni Moretti (Palombella rossa in 1989, Caro diario in 1994, Il grido d'angoscia dell'uccello predatore (20 tagli d'Aprile) in 2001 and The Caiman in 2006). He realized L'estate di Davide (1998) and La lingua del santo (2000), besides the documentary series Ritratti about Mario Rigoni Stern, Andrea Zanzotto e Luigi Meneghello with interviews realized by Marco Paolini. In 2006 he plays a minor role in Zeldman by Cosimo Messeri.

In 2007 he shot La giusta distanza with Valentina Lodovini as the main protagonist. In 2009 he had co-produced with Angelo Barbagallo and Edoardo Scarantino the movie/documentary The One Man Beatles by Cosimo Messeri, in competition at the IV edition of the International film festival in Rome and nominated for best documentary at the 2010 David di Donatello. In 2010 he directed Silvio Orlando in La passione. and shot the documentary Sei Venezia, a work which displays six stories dedicated to six venetian characters. In december 2011 he was nominated first president of the new Cineteca di Bologna foundation[1][2]. In 2012 he realised Medici con l'Africa, a documentary shot in Mozambique in which he narrates the activities of the Medici con l'Africa Cuamm's volontiers, the most important Italian organization for the safeguard of African population health. On the 20th november 2013 he received the Gran Premio Torino for his career[3].

Precisely in Turin, at the Turin Film Festival, he presented his last movie La sedia della felicità, distributed in theatres in the spring of 2014 and interpreted by Isabella Ragonese and Valerio Mastandrea. This movie was shot in Veneto (in the area of the colli Euganei) and in Trentino and it was produced by Angelo Barbagallo.

He died at the age of 57 at the hospital of Padua, after the complication of a pancreas cancer[4]. It was prepared a burial chamber the 25th january in Padua at the headquarter of Medici con l'Africa Cuamm.

Personal life

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He was married with Marina Zangirolami, with her he had a daughter[5].

Awards and honors

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Filmography

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Director

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  • Vagabondi (1983) - shot in 16 mm.

Documentaries

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Screenwriter

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  • Vagabondi (1980)
  • L'albero dei diamanti (1984)
  • Fracchia contro Dracula (1985)
  • Notte italiana (1988)
  • Domani accadrà (1989)
  • Il prete bello (1989)
  • Marrakech Express (1989)
  • Un'altra vita (1992)
  • Il toro (1994)
  • Vesna va veloce (1996)
  • L'estate di Davide (1998)
  • Ritratti: Mario Rigoni Stern (2000) - Documentary
  • Ritratti: Andrea Zanzotto (2000)
  • La lingua del santo (2000)
  • Ritratti: Luigi Meneghello (2002) - Documentary
  • A cavallo della tigre (2002)
  • L'amore ritrovato (2004)
  • La giusta distanza (2007)
  • La passione (2010)
  • Sei Venezia (2010) - Documentary

Actor

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  • Palombella rossa, directed by Nanni Moretti (1989)
  • Caro diario, directed by Nanni Moretti (1994)
  • Il grido d'angoscia dell'uccello predatore, directed by Nanni Moretti (2001) - short movie
  • Il ponte, directed by Stefano Missio (2005)
  • Mattotti, directed by Renato Chiocca (2006) - Zeldman documentary, directed by Cosimo Messeri (2006)
  • Il caimano, directed by Nanni Moretti (2006)

Producer

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References

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  1. ^ "Carlo Mazzacurati president of the Cineteque Foundation in Bologna". Bologna Today. 28th December 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ "Nominated the new board of directors". cinetecadibologna.it. 28th December 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ "Tff, Gran Prix to Mazzacurati". corriere.it.
  4. ^ Anselmi, Michele (22th January 2014). "Goodbye Carlo Mazzacurati". cinemonitor.it. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ "Director Carlo Mazzacurati is dead". corrieredelveneto.corriere.it. 22th January 2014. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Ciak d'oro".

See also

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