Roberto Gerardi (18 October 1919 – 1995) was an Italian
cinematographer
The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...
.
Born in
Rome
Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, Gerardi began his career as an assistant of
Carlo Montuori, then pursued his career as an assistant operator of
Anchise Brizzi, with whom he worked in one of the masterpieces of
neorealism,
Vittorio De Sica's ''
Shoeshine''.
[Stefano Masi, ''Dizionario mondiale dei direttori della fotografia'', Le Mani, 2007, pp. 336-337. .] He made his debut as a cinematographer in 1957 with the film ''
I colpevoli'' by
Turi Vasile, in which he experienced an innovative camera system, with the simultaneous use of three cameras to frame different cuts of long shots.
After having accompanied
Giuseppe Rotunno as an additional cinematographer in ''
The Great War'' (1959), in the early sixties he worked in art films such as
Damiano Damiani's ''
Arturo's Island'' and ''
The Empty Canvas'', but also to international co-productions such as ''
Madame Sans-Gene'' by
Christian-Jaque
Christian-Jaque (byname of Christian Maudet; 4 September 1904 – 8 July 1994) was a French filmmaker. From 1954 to 1959, he was married to actress Martine Carol, who starred in several of his films, including ''Lucrèce Borgia'' (1953), ''M ...
and ''
The Condemned of Altona'' by
Vittorio De Sica.
In the second half of the sixties Gerardi turned into literary adaptations such as ''
Mademoiselle De Maupin'' by
Mauro Bolognini and ''
Don Giovanni in Sicilia'' by
Alberto Lattuada. He was also pretty active in sophisticated
commedia all'italiana films, in which he adopted a distinctive cinematography, characterized by "a brilliant use of color and light".
The seventies marked the beginning of the decline of his career, that started to be orientated to more popular and less ambitious productions;
during these years he regularly worked with the directors
Fernando Di Leo and
Giorgio Capitani.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerardi, Roberto
1919 births
1995 deaths
Italian cinematographers
Film people from Rome