Franco Zeffirelli was born in Florence on 12 February exactly 100 years ago. His career embraced cinema, television, theatre and opera as director, writer, production designer and even actor.
Renowned for his refined elegance, he contributed to the success of Italian cinema abroad with his directing. His work always had an international dimension, as in his big-screen adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, great love stories (Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Jane Eyre), and unforgettable tales of historic characters (St. Francis in Brother Sun, Sister Moon: Jesus of Nazareth, one of the longest running TV series about the life of Christ).
A group of English ladies living in Florence played a formative role in Zeffirelli’s childhood, spent in an orphanage: thanks to them (as told in the autobiographical film Tea with Mussolini) he learnt languages and Shakespeare. His studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti set him up for a career in set design following WWII. His relationship with Visconti, to whom he acted as assistant, brought him into the world of theatre and cinema taking him subsequently to direct the great opera singer Maria Callas.
His cinema debut in 1957, with the comedy Campus was followed by various films based on Shakespeare’s plays including The Taming of the Shrew (1967) with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. His stunning version of Romeo and Juliet (1968), with Nino Rota’s music contributing to its success, starred two newcomers, the very young Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey; and was nominated for four Academy Awards Ó including Best Film and Best Director, winning for Best Cinematography (for Pasqualino De Santis) and Best Costumes (Danilo Donati). His directing was later recognised with a David di Donatello. His Hamlet (1990) starring Mel Gibson, a very young Helena Bonham-Carter and Glenn Close, brought Oscar nominations for Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo for Best Production Design and Maurizio Millenotti for Best Costumes and won the David di Donatello for Best Foreign Film.
His religiously themed work is worthy of note: his film about St. Francis (played by Graham Faulkner), Fratello Sole Sorella Luna (Brother Sun, Sister Moon): (1972), was nominated for Academy Award for Best Screenplay and won the David di Donatello for Best Director; while the tv series Jesus of Nazareth (from 1977) gained great international success, with a reduced version even screening in theatres and subsequently became a feature of seasonal celebrations in many countries.
He almost always worked abroad but some of his films had a strong Italian base. He used several borgos in Tuscany, Lazio and Umbria to create medieval Verona for Romeo and Juliet: Palazzo Piccolomini in Pienza was the Capulet home, the duels took place in Gubbio and the crypt of the Church of St. Peter in Tuscania was the setting for the tragic epilogue.
Umbria and Tuscany were also the setting for Fratello Sole Sorella Luna (Brother Sun, Sister Moon): Zeffirelli chose Montalcino, San Gimignano, Gubbio, and the plain of Castelluccio di Norcia for the story of the saint from Assisi.
His birthplace, Florence, was featured in his autobiographical Tea with Mussolini, set and shot in various places in the city.