Mario Masini
Italian cinematographer and director (1939–2023)
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Mario Masini (28 January 1939 – 13 March 2023) was an Italian cinematographer and experimental director. He won the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival with the film Padre Padrone in 1976.[1]
Life and career
Born in Savona, Masini grew up in Tuscany and in 1961 he graduated from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome.[2] He started his film career as assistant operator of Vittorio Storaro in Daniele D'Anza's Pugni, pupe e marinai.[3] He is best known for his association with Carmelo Bene, with whom he collaborated as a cinematographer in all his films, including the Venice Film Festival Special Jury Prize winner Our Lady of the Turks; other notable collaborations include Paolo and Vittorio Taviani (notably being the cinematographer of Palme d'Or winner Padre Padrone), Bruno Bozzetto, Giuseppe Ferrara and Vittorio De Sisti.[2][3][4] In the 1980s Masini retired from the industry to work as a teacher in some Steiner schools, and later moved to Stuttgart.[2] He reprised his cinema activities in the early 1990s, working mainly in independent and arthouse international productions.[2]
Masini was also a director of experimental and often surrealist films.[2] He died on 13 March 2023, at the age of 84.[2][3]