Francesco Rosi

Francesco Rosi
Rosi at the Cannes Film Festival, 1991
Born	(1922-11-15)15 November 1922 Naples, Italy
Died	10 January 2015(2015-01-10) (aged 92) Rome, Italy
Cause of death	Bronchitis
Occupation	Director, producer
Years active	1948–1997
Children	Carolina Rosi, 1966

Francesco Rosi (15 November 1922 – 10 January 2015) was an Italian film director. His film The Mattei Affair won the Palme d'Or at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival. Rosi's films, especially those of the 1960s and 1970s, often appeared to have political messages. While the topics for his later films became less politically oriented and more angled toward literature, he continued to direct until 1997, his last film being the Primo Levi book adaptation The Truce.

At the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival 13 of his films were screened, in a section reserved for film-makers of outstanding quality and achievement. He received the Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement, accompanied by the screening of his 1962 film Salvatore Giuliano. In 2012 the Venice Biennale awarded Rosi the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

Rosi was born in Naples in 1922. His father worked in the shipping industry, but was also a cartoonist and had, at one time, been reprimanded for his satirical drawings of Benito Mussolini and King Vittorio Emmanuel III.

During the Second World War Rosi went to college alongside Giorgio Napolitano who was to become Italian President. He studied law and then embarked on a career as an illustrator of children's books. At the same time he began working as a reporter for Radio Napoli (). There he became friendly with Raffaele La Capria, Aldo Giuffrè and Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, with each of whom he would later often collaborate.