Aim for the heart
January 20, 1945 Italian Director Gianni Amelio was born on January 20, 1945 in San Pietro Magisano, Catanzaro. In 1945 his father left the family shortly after his birth moved to Argentina in search of his father who did not give more news about himself. Gianni grows with his maternal grandmother who will take care of his education. Since young Amelio is a cinephile, great lover of cinema, is part of a world proletarian revolution, marked by the need to work for a living, and his humility will recur often in his films. He attended before the experimental center then graduated in Philosophy at the University of Messina. In the years ' 60 works as a cameraman and then as an Assistant Director. He took his first steps as an Assistant to Vittorio De Seta in the movie "a man in the Middle" and for a long time he continued this activity. Other films in which it participates are those by Gianni Puccini ("billion" Ballad, "where you shoot more," "the seven Cervi brothers"). Gianni Amelio then starts to work independently for television, which will devote much of his career. His debut behind the camera in 1970 with "endgame", carried out in the context of experimental programs of RAI: is the exercise of a young author who discovers the camera, where the protagonist of the film is a child trapped in a boarding school. In 1973 he made "La città del sole", curious and elaborate divagations on Tommaso Campanella who gets the Grand Prize at the Festival in Thonon the following year. Three years later, following "Bertolucci secondo il cinema (1976), a documentary on the making of" Novecento ". Are then the atypical yellow-shot with camera, on ampex-"death at work" (1978), winner of the Fipresci prize at the Locarno Film Festival. Also in 1978 Amelio creates special effects, original thriller starring a Senior Director of horror films and a young cinephile. In 1979 it was the turn of "Il piccolo Archimede, atmospheric adaptation of the novel by Aldous Huxley which fruits to Laura Betti recognition of best actress at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Then in 1983 the first feature film for the cinema, which will also be the most important of the entire career of the Director: "strike at the heart" (with Laura Morante), a movie about terrorism. The period, the beginning of the years 80, is characterized by vivid memory of so-called "years of lead". The main capacity of Amelio is not to moralize about the affair, but move it to intimate a conflict between father and son, managing to show the two souls in an original way and not at all rhetorical. Keynote Amelio works is the adult-child relationship, faced in all its facets, while they are absent the love stories. Presented at the Venice Film Festival, the film receives widespread acclaim on the face of the criticism. In 1989 gets a new critical success with "I ragazzi di via Panisperna", where are told the story of the famous group of physicists headed in the years ' 30, standing still and Amaldi. A year later, even more successful results "open doors" (1990, on the death penalty, the novel by Leonardo Sciascia), which procures a Gianni Amelio a well-deserved Oscar nomination. The later films are "stolen children" (1992, story of a policeman who accompanies two brothers destined to an orphanage), winner of the Grand special jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival, "Lamerica (1994, with Michele Placido, Italian on the mirage of the Albanian people)," the way we laughed "(1998, on the difficult reality of emigration, in Turin's 50 Years, analyzed through the relationship of two brothers) Golden Lion winner at the Venice Film Festival, and consecrate Amelio internationally. The 2004 marks the return of Amelio as Director and screenwriter with "Le chiavi di casa", loosely based on the novel "born twice" by Giuseppe Pontiggia. The film, starring Kim Rossi Stuart, Charlotte Rampling, is among the protagonists of the 61st Edition of the Venice Film Festival, to which Amelio contributes to the Golden Lion.