Folco Quilici (9 April 1930 – 24 February 2018)
was an Italian
film director
A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...
and
screenwriter
A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...
.
He directed a total of 22 films between 1952 and his retirement in 2005,
including ''
Tiko and the Shark'' (
it). His 1955 film ''L'ultimo paradiso'' won the
Silver Bear
The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...
in the documentary category at the
7th Berlin International Film Festival
The 7th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 21 June to 2 July 1957.
The Golden Bear was awarded to '' 12 Angry Men'' directed by Sidney Lumet. The International Federation of Film Critics awarded FIPRESCI Award for the firs ...
.
Biography
Son of journalist
Nello Quilici and painter
Mimì Quilici Buzzacchi, he was born in the beautiful city Ferrara on 9th April 1930. His father Nello, who was a famous journalist, tragically died during the war in what has been remembered as the incident of Tobruch, a fatal plane crush above Libia. The airplane on which the journalist was traveling along with
Italo Balbo
Italo Balbo (6 June 1896 – 28 June 1940) was an Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Italian fascist politician and Blackshirts' leader who served as Italy's Marshal of the Air Force, Governor-General of Italian Libya and Commander-in-Chief of Italian ...
, Lino Balbo, and other collaborators of the governor was shot down in the skies of
Tobruk
Tobruk ( ; ; ) is a port city on Libya's eastern Mediterranean coast, near the border with Egypt. It is the capital of the Butnan District (formerly Tobruk District) and has a population of 120,000 (2011 est.)."Tobruk" (history), ''Encyclop� ...
by the anti-aircraft fire from the
Italian cruiser San Giorgio. All the passengers perished. An hypothesis, never confirmed but widespread, suggests that the downing was not accidental but rather deliberate, a homicide caused by the disagreements between Balbo and
Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who, upon assuming office as Prime Minister, became the dictator of Fascist Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his overthrow in 194 ...
. Quilici left a testimony of his brief experience in Libya in the War Diary kept from June 12 to June 21, 1940.
After the war he moved with his mother and his brother Vieri in via Sicilia in Rome where they lived with his aunt. There he studied at the "Torquato Tasso" high school, and soon after he embarked on a career in amateur filmmaking and specialized in underwater filming, becoming very popular also beyond national borders. He studied directing at the
Experimental Cinematography Center.
He was registered as a journalist with the National Order of Journalists on February 19, 1963, and for this he was awarded by the same Order in 2013 for his 50 years of journalistic activity.
In 2006,
Forbes
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...
magazine included him among the one hundred most influential figures in the world thanks to his films and books on the environment and cultures.
In 2008, he was awarded the "La Navicella d'Oro" Prize, conferred by the Italian Geographic Society, with the following motivation:
"Over more than half a century of constant professional activity, he has configured a personal model of a traveler capable of exploring and testifying with persuasive rigor and poetics the most relevant territories of geographical, historical, and artistic culture of human society past and present, achieving stylistic and expressive results of considerable value and broad communicative relevance."
Cinema
His films dedicated to the relationship between man and the sea were distributed worldwide. Among them, the following received significant recognition: "Sesto continente" (Special Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1954), "Ultimo paradiso" (Silver Bear at the Berlin Festival in 1956), "Tikoyo e il suo pescecane" (UNESCO Culture Prize in 1961), "Oceano" (Special Prize at the Taormina Film Festival in 1971 and David di Donatello in 1972), "Fratello mare" (First Prize at the International Marine Film Festival, Cartagena, 1974), and "Cacciatori di navi" in 1991 (Umbria Fiction Prize, 1992).
In 1965, Esso entrusted him with the production of a series of films about Italy shot from above using a helicopter: from 1966 to 1978, 14 such documentaries were made, all titled "L'Italia vista dal cielo"; sixteen illustrated volumes accompanied these films. The commentary for the fourteen films was entrusted to important writers and art historians of the time such as
Leonardo Sciascia
Leonardo Sciascia (; 8 January 1921 – 20 November 1989) was an Italian writer, novelist, essayist, playwright, and politician. Some of his works have been made into films, including '' Porte Aperte'' (1990; ''Open Doors''), '' Cadaveri Eccellen ...
,
Giovanni Comisso,
Cesare Brandi
Cesare Brandi (8 April 1906 – 19 January 1988) was an art critic and historian, a specialist in conservation-restoration theory who was born in Siena and died in Vignano.
In 1939 he became the first director of the ''Istituto Centrale per il R ...
,
Mario Praz,
Italo Calvino
Italo Calvino (, ; ;. RAI (circa 1970), retrieved 25 October 2012. 15 October 1923 – 19 September 1985) was an Italian novelist and short story writer. His best-known works include the ''Our Ancestors'' trilogy (1952–1959), the '' Cosm ...
,
Guido Piovene,
Michele Prisco,
Ignazio Silone
Secondino Tranquilli (1 May 1900 – 22 August 1978), best known by the pseudonym Ignazio Silone (, ), was an Italian politician, novelist, essayist, playwright, and short-story writer, world-famous during World War II for his powerful anti-fasci ...
, and
Mario Soldati
Mario Soldati (17 November 1906 – 19 June 1999) was an Italian writer and film director. In 1954, he won the Strega Prize for ''Lettere da Capri.'' He directed several works adapted from novels, and worked with leading Italian actresses, s ...
.
Other acclaimed films of his, both in cinemas and not only in Italy, include: "Dagli Appennini alle Ande" (1959), which won the "Concha de plata" at the San Sebastian International Festival; "Il dio sotto la pelle" in 1974. Among his mid-length films of particular commitment, some were presented out of competition at the
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...
: "Paul Gauguin" (1957) and "L'angelo e la sirena" (1980). In 1964, he removed his name from the film "Le schiave esistono ancora" due to disagreements with the producer Maleno Malenotti, not only because of the arbitrarily chosen title but also due to the inclusion of numerous false scenes in the film.
In 1976, called upon by
Dino De Laurentiis
Agostino "Dino" De Laurentiis (; 8 August 1919 – 10 November 2010) was an Italian film producer and businessman who held both Italian and American citizenship. Following a brief acting career in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he moved into f ...
, he collaborated in the underwater filming for
Michael Anderson's film "
Orca: The Killer Whale"; the screenplay was written by
Luciano Vincenzoni, who often recalled Quilici's contribution as crucial to the success of the filming.
Also noteworthy is "Botticelli, una nuova primavera" (1982). In 1970, he produced "Firenze 1000 giorni," about the 1967 flood and the efforts to save its cultural heritage. Folco Quilici was nominated for an
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
in 1971 for "Toscana," one of the fourteen films from "L'Italia vista dal cielo." In 2000, for the Franco-German television network Arte, he produced and directed the feature films "Kolossal" (1999/2000) and "Il mondo di Pinocchio" (2002). In 2004, for the Luce Institute, he directed the feature film "L'impero di marmo" (awarded at the Agon International Archaeological Film Festival, Greece, in 2006) and the documentary film "L'ultimo volo" (Acqui Storia Prize 2010). Later, he directed "Lazio – Paesaggio e storia" (Bellezze d'Italia Prize 2012).
Career
From 1954, he published numerous works of non-fiction in Italy and abroad: "Mala Kebir" (1955), "Mille fuochi" (1964), "Sesto continente" (1965), "Gli ultimi primitivi" (1972), "I grandi deserti" (1972), "Magia" (1977), "Le frontiere di Allah" (1978), "Natura chiama uomo" (1979), "Il riflesso dell'Islam" (1983), "L'uomo europeo" (1983), "India" (1990), "I mari del sud" (1991), "Il mio Mediterraneo" (1992), "La mia Africa" (1992), "Le Americhe" (1993), "Il mio Mar Rosso" (1998), "Tobruk 1940" (2004), "I miei mari" (2006). Between 1976 and 1979, he directed "La grande enciclopedia del mare." In 1974/1975, he co-authored "La Mediterranéé" with Fernand Braudel. With his wife Anna, he authored two biographies: "Amundsen" (1998) and "Jack London" (2000), which won the Chianciano Prize and the Castiglioncello Prize.
Starting from 2002, he collaborated on a series of illustrated volumes, wit
Luca Tamagnini(published b
Phoatlante, dedicated to the protected areas of the Italian seas.
He ventured into fiction with "Cacciatori di navi" (1985), translated in the United States, "Cielo verde" (1997), a novel long present in the bestseller list in Italy, and in 1998 with "Naufraghi." In 1999, with the novel "Alta profondità," he began the cycle composed of "L'abisso di Hatutu" (2001), "Mare Rosso" (2002), "I serpenti di Melqart" (2003), "La fenice del Bajkal" (2005). In 2008, he published the novel "Libeccio" and in 2012 "La dogana del vento."
In 2011 and 2012, he wrote two books for children's literature: "Storie del mare" and "Amico oceano."
Quilici collaborated with Italian and international press since 1954, for newspapers such as
Life
Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
,
Epoca,
Panorama
A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...
, Europeo, and for dailies such as
La Stampa
(English: "The Press") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Turin with an average circulation of 87,143 copies in May 2023. Distributed in Italy and other European nations, it is one of the oldest newspapers in Italy. Until the late 1970 ...
and
Corriere della Sera
(; ) is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average circulation of 246,278 copies in May 2023. First published on 5 March 1876, is one of Italy's oldest newspapers and is Italy's most read newspaper. Its masthead has remain ...
. His journalistic commitment saw him working for Il Messaggero on naturalistic themes. In 1994, he won the "Penna d'oro" for his services on Latin America. In 1997, he was awarded the "Premio Campidoglio per la carriera nel giornalismo culturale."
In 1983, President
Sandro Pertini
Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio "Sandro" Pertini (; 25 September 1896 – 24 February 1990) was an Italian socialist politician and statesman who served as President of Italy from 1978 to 1985.
Early life
Born in Stella (province of Savona) as t ...
awarded him the "Medaglia d'oro" for cultural merits.
He taught courses at the University of Bologna (1966/1967), at the University of Berlin (1991), at the Experimental Cinematography Center (1995), at the Catholic University of Milan (1998), at the Third University of Rome (2001/2002), at the University of Padua (2004/2005). From 1985 to 1989, he taught at ORAO (Centro dell'Immagine Culturale), in courses resumed in 1997 and continued in 1998.
From February 2003 to June 2006, he was president of ICRAM, Central Institute for Scientific and Technological Research Applied to the Sea, and directed the Institute's "Quaderni scientifici." Previously, from 1995 to 1996, he was the director of the monthly "Mondo Sommerso."
He was among the founding members of H.D.S. (Historical Diving Society Italia) and the environmental association Marevivo.
Death
Quilici died in
Orvieto
Orvieto () is a city and ''comune'' in the Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy, situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The city rises dramatically above the almost-vertical faces of tuff cliffs that are compl ...
, Italy of a
stroke
Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
on 24 February 2018 at the age of 87.
"One of the Fathers of Modern Exploration, Folco Quilici, Passes at 87"
''The Outdoor Journal''. Retrieved 27 February 2018.
References
External links
*
*
1930 births
2018 deaths
Italian film directors
20th-century Italian screenwriters
Italian male screenwriters
Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia alumni
Underwater photographers
People from Ferrara
{{Italy-film-director-stub