“Forgotten Hollywood”- Under the Tuscan Sun…
“`Italian director Franco Zeffirelli delighted audiences around the world with romantic vision and distinctive productions, most famously captured in his cinematic Romeo and Juliet. It was his personal goal to make culture accessible to audiences, finding inspiration in William Shakespeare and other literary greats for his movies, and producing opera for the stage and small screen.
“`As a youth, Zeffirelli served with the partisans during World War II. He later acted as an interpreter for British troops. He remained an Anglophile, and was particularly proud when Britain gave him an honorary knighthood in 2004.
“`The lifelong bachelor turned to acting at twenty when he joined an experimental troupe in Florence. After a short-lived acting career, Zeffirelli worked with Luchino Visconti’s theatrical company in Rome, where he showed a flair for dramatic staging techniques in A Streetcar Named Desire. He later served as an assistant director under Michelangelo Antonioni and Vittorio De Sica.
“`Zeffirelli directed Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. His other productions included Brother Sun Sister Moon, a remake of The Champ, Endless Love, La Traviata and Tea with Mussolini. But it was Romeo and Juliet that set box-office records in the United States. The flick is one of the most successful adaptations of Shakespeare ever.
“`His small screen mini-series, Jesus of Nazareth, was a major success and is still shown on television during the Christmas season. In his spare time, Zeffirelli brought opera to the stage working with Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and Maria Callas.
“`Franco Zeffirelli (above) was ninety-six.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Sunday, June 16th, 2019 at 11:30 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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