Tonino Guerra is a famous Italian poet, prose writer, screenwriter. He wrote scripts for films for more than 50 years, from 1956 until his death. Died March 21, 2012 in the town of Santarcangelo di Romagna. He wrote literary works in the Emilian-Romagnole dialect, as well as in Italian.
early years
The scripter's full name is Antonio Guerra. He was born March 16, 1920 in the city of Santarcangelo di Romagna in Italy, near Rimini. Here Tonino lived his whole life. Tonino's parents raised eleven children.
After leaving school, the guy entered the pedagogical university in Urbino. During World War II, Guerra ended up in a Nazi concentration camp. Here the guy began to write his first works.
Screenwriter career
In 1953, Tonino began writing scripts for films. Later, many of his scripts will be included in the golden fund of films not only in Italy, but throughout the world. He wrote scripts for such directors as Giuseppe de Santis, the Taviani brothers, Mauro Bolognini, Damiano Damiani.
The director Michelangelo Antonioni made famous films such as Photographic Enlargement, Zabriskie Point, Adventure, Night, Red Desert, Eclipse, and others based on the scripts of Tonino Guerra. Quotes from these scripts, and subsequently films, were printed in newspapers, instantly became popular and were used by viewers and film critics in everyday life.
The brilliant filmmaker Federico Felini was a fellow countryman and close friend of Tonino. Together they worked on the play Amarkord, which after some time became a film. The next joint projects of Guerra and Fellini are “Ginger and Fred” and “And the ship is sailing …”.
Other movie scripts by Tonino Guerra were revived on screen by directors Francesco Rosi and Theo Angelopoulos.
Guerra has written 109 scripts over the years of his career.
Work in the USSR
According to the script, Tonino had a chance to make a film for Andrey Tarkovsky. The film “Nostalgia”, on which they worked together, later served as the basis for the documentary “Travel Time”.
Tonino had many friends in the USSR. He maintained friendly relations with famous filmmakers Georgy Danelia, Alexander Brunkovsky, Paola Volkova, Yuri Lyubimov and Bella Akhmadulina.
Director Vladimir Naumov filmed two prose works of the master - “Clock without hands” and “White holiday”.
Soviet magazines often published interviews, excerpts, and photos of Tonino Guerra.
In the second half of the 70s, the Goskino of the USSR invited Tonino and director Michelangelo Antonioni to jointly shoot the children's science fiction film “The Paper Kite”. They were planning to make a film in Uzbekistan. Tonino and Michelangelo came to appreciate the landscapes, but as a result, for many reasons, the project remained unrealized.
The famous Russian animator Andrei Khrzhanovsky shot the animated film "The Lion with a Gray Beard" according to the Italian scenario. The cartoon was shown at many famous festivals. "Lion with a gray beard" was a resounding success with Western film critics and viewers, received many prestigious awards.
In the wake of success, Guerra and Khrzhanovsky made two more cartoons - “A Long Journey” based on drawings by Federico Fellini and “Lullaby for Cricket” - a cartoon dedicated to the 200th anniversary of A. Pushkin.
Tonino Guerra's poetic works were translated into Russian by Bella Akhmadulina. The famous poetess.
The book "Seven notebooks of life"
Tonino Guerra published the book "Seven Notebooks of Life" in 2007. It included both poetic and prose works. “Seven notebooks of life” is like seven parts of the world, seven directions among the natives of Australia. These directions are north, south, east, west, bottom, top and inward of oneself.
The book includes the diaries of the writer, his stories, poems, as well as the recollections of Guerra's friends about him and his life.
Guerra is the author of a famous quote:
When the first leaf falls in autumn, it makes a deafening noise, because with it it falls a whole year …
The style of the writer is not like European. His way of thinking is closer to eastern culture. Tonino is often compared to Japanese writers and poets.
Awards
Tonino is a laureate of many prestigious film awards. Among them are:
- In 1966 - nomination for an Oscar for the script for the film Casanova 70;
- In 1967 - nomination for an Oscar for the script "Photo Enlargement";
- In 1976 - nomination for an Oscar for Amarkord;
- In 1984 - Cannes Film Festival Award for Journey to Kiteru;
- In 1989 - nomination for the European Academy Award for "Landscape in the Fog";
- In 1994, the Pietro Bianchi Prize at the Venice Film Festival;
- In 1995 - MIFF Silver Award “St. George” for his contribution to cinema.
Personal life
In the 70s, Tonino married a girl from the Soviet Union named Eleanor Yablochkina. The marriage was registered in Moscow. The scriptwriter gave his wife a birdcage, and Eleanor began to put notes in her with phrases in Italian. One of these phrases translated into Russian meant "If you have a mountain of snow, then keep it in the shade."
Guerra tried to never be commonplace, and this helped him to maintain a warm relationship with his wife for many years.
He gave Laura two cars, but the woman did not learn how to drive well, so she broke both. Another gorgeous gift that Tonino made to his wife is a house in the city of Pennabilli. Often, Guerra dedicated poetry to Eleanor.
Having achieved success in life and a little tired of cinema, in his hometown of Santarcangelo di Romagna Tonino opened a restaurant, on the walls of which he hung his own drawings. Guerra also attached ceramic plates with quotes and aphorisms to the walls of houses, which he had been collecting for many years.
