Roberto Rossellini
| Roberto Rossellini | |
|---|---|
Rossellini and Saha the cat in the segment Envy from the film The Seven Deadly Sins (1952)
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| Born |
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini 8 May 1906 Rome, Kingdom of Italy |
| Died | 3 June 1977 (aged 71) Rome, Italy |
| Occupation | Film director, producer, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1936–1977 |
| Spouse(s) |
Assia Noris (m. 1934; annulled 1936) Marcella De Marchis (m. 1936; div. 1950) Ingrid Bergman (m. 1950; div. 1957) Sonali Das Gupta (m. 1957; his death 1977) |
| Children | 6, including Isabella Rossellini, 1 adopted stepson, 1 stepdaughter |
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. Rossellini was one of the directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement films such as the 1945 Roma città aperta (Rome, Open City).
Rossellini was born in Rome. His mother, Elettra (née Bellan), was a housewife born in Rovigo, Veneto, and his father, Angiolo Giuseppe "Beppino" Rossellini, who owned a construction firm, was born in Rome from a family originally from Pisa, Tuscany. His mother was of part French descent, from immigrants who had arrived in Italy during the Napoleonic Wars. He lived on the Via Ludovisi, where Benito Mussolini had his first Roman hotel in 1922 when Fascism obtained power in Italy.
Rossellini's father built the first cinema in Rome, the "Barberini", a theater where movies could be projected, granting his son an unlimited free pass; the young Rossellini started frequenting the cinema at an early age. When his father died, he worked as a soundmaker for films and for a certain time he experienced all the accessory jobs related to the creation of a film, gaining competence in each field. Rossellini had a brother, Renzo, who later scored many of his films.
On 26 September 1936, he married Marcella De Marchis (17 January 1916, Rome – 25 February 2009, Sarteano), a costume designer with whom he collaborated even after their marriage was over. This was after a quick annulment from Assia Noris, a Russian actress who worked in Italian films. De Marchis and Rossellini had two sons: Marco Romano (born 3 July 1937 and died of appendicitis in 1946), and Renzo. Rossellini and De Marchis separated in 1950 (and eventually divorced). Although he wasn't personally religious, he had a strong interest in Christian values in the contemporary world; he loved the Church's ethical teaching, and was enchanted by religious sentiment—things which he saw as being neglected in the materialist world.
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