Vittorio Storaro, A.S.C., A.I.C. (born 24 June 1940), is an Italian cinematographer, widely recognized as one of the best and most influential in cinema history.
Over the course of 50 years, he has collaborated with directors like Bernardo Bertolucci, Francis Ford Coppola, Warren Beatty, Woody Allen, and Carlos Saura.
Storaro is one of three living people to have won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography three times, a position he shares with Robert Richardson and Emmanuel Lubezki.
Early life and education
Born in Rome, Storaro is the son of a film projectionist.
He began studying photography at the age of 11, and at the age of 18, he went on to formal cinematography studies at the national Italian film school, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia.
Career Storaro's philosophy is largely inspired by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's theory of colors, which focuses in part on the psychological effects that different colors have and the way in which colors influence our perceptions of different situations.
He first worked with Bernardo Bertolucci on The Conformist (1970). He then worked on Dario Argento's first directorial feature The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970), which is considered a landmark in the giallo genre.
With Francis Ford Coppola, Storaro made his American film debut with Apocalypse Now (1979), which earned him his first Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
Storaro went to win two more Academy Awards in the 1980s, one with Warren Beatty's Reds (1981) and one for Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987).
In 2002, Storaro completed the first in a series of books that articulate his philosophy of cinematography.
He was the cinematographer for a BBC co-production with Italian broadcaster RAI of Verdi's Rigoletto over two nights on the weekend of 4 and 5 September 2010.
Though working primarily with film cameras, Woody Allen's feature Café Society (2016) was Storaro's first project to be shot digitally.
In 2017, Storaro was honored with the George Eastman Award. The same year he also attended the New York Film Festival at which he debated with Edward Lachman on cinematography and its transition from film to digital.
With his son Fabrizio, he created the Univisium format system to unify all future theatrical and television movies into one respective aspect ratio of 2.00:1. As of 2023, this unification has not happened, and the universal replacement of 4:3 televisions by large, wide-screen displays greatly reduces the need to modify scope-ratio films for home theater presentation.
Personal life Storaro is known for stylish, fastidious, and flamboyant personal fashion. Francis Ford Coppola once noted, "Vittorio is the only man I ever knew that could fall off a ladder in a white suit, into the mud, and not get dirty."
Filmography
Feature film Year Title Director Notes 1962 Attack of the Normans Giuseppe Vari With Marco Scarpelli1969 Youth March Franco Rossi Delitto al circolo del tennis Franco Rossetti1970 The Bird with the Crystal Plumage Dario Argento The ConformistBernardo Bertolucci The Spider's Stratagem With Franco Di Giacomo1971 The Fifth Cord Luigi Bazzoni 'Tis Pity She's a Whore Giuseppe Patroni Griffi 1972 Last Tango in Paris Bernardo Bertolucci1973 Malicious Salvatore Samperi Brothers Blue Luigi Bazzoni Corpo d'amore Fabio Carpi Giordano Bruno Giuliano Montaldo 1974 The Driver's Seat Giuseppe Patroni Griffi 1975 Footprints on the Moon Luigi BazzoniMario Fanelli1976 1900 Bernardo Bertolucci Submission Salvatore Samperi1979 Agatha Michael Apted Apocalypse Now Francis Ford Coppola Luna Bernardo Bertolucci 1981 Reds Warren Beatty 1982 One from the Heart Francis Ford Coppola With Ronald Víctor García 1985 Ladyhawke Richard Donner1987 Ishtar Elaine May The Last Emperor Bernardo Bertolucci 1988 Tucker: The Man and His Dream Francis Ford Coppola1990 Dick Tracy Warren Beatty The Sheltering Sky Bernardo Bertolucci 1992 Tosca Brian Large 1993 Little Buddha Bernardo Bertolucci 1996 Taxi Carlos Saura1998 Bulworth Warren Beatty TangoCarlos Saura 1999 Goya in Bordeaux2000 Mirka Rachid Benhadj Picking Up the PiecesAlfonso Arau2004 Zapata: el sueño del héroe Exorcist: The Beginning Renny Harlin 2005 Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist Paul Schrader 2009 I, Don Giovanni Carlos Saura 2010 The Trick in the Sheet Alfonso Arau 2012 Parfums d'Alger Rachid Benhadj 2015 Muhammad: The Messenger of God Majid Majidi 2016 Café SocietyWoody Allen 2017 Wonder Wheel 2018 A Rose in Winter Joshua Sinclair 2019 A Rainy Day in New YorkWoody Allen 2020 Rifkin's Festival 2021 The King of All the World Carlos Saura 2023 Coup de chance Woody Allen
Documentary film Year Title Director 1994 Roma imago urbis Luigi Bazzoni 1995 FlamencoCarlos Saura 2010 Flamenco Flamenco
Television Year Title Director 1971 Eneide Franco Rossi
Miniseries Year Title Director Notes 1974 Orlando Furioso Luca Ronconi With Arturo Zavattini 1983 Wagner Tony Palmer 1986 Peter the Great Marvin J. ChomskyLawrence Schiller 2000 Frank Herbert's Dune John Harrison 2007 Caravaggio Angelo Longoni
TV movies Year Title Director Notes1992 Tosca: In the Settings and at the Times of Tosca Brian Large Writing with Light: Vittorio Storaro David M. Thompson Documentary film 2000 La traviataPierre Cavassilas 2010 Rigoletto a Mantova
Awards and nominations Academy Awards Year Category Title Result 1980Best Cinematography Apocalypse Now 1982 Reds 1988 The Last Emperor 1991 Dick Tracy
British Academy Film Awards Year Category Title Result Ref. 1980Best Cinematography Apocalypse Now 1983 Reds 1989 The Last Emperor 1991 The Sheltering Sky
American Society of Cinematographers Year Category Title Result 1988Outstanding Cinematography The Last Emperor 1991 Dick Tracy 2001 Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Limited Series Dune Lifetime Achievement Award
European Film Awards Year Category Title Result Ref. 2000 Best Cinematography Goya en Burdeos
Primetime Emmy Awards Year Category Title Result 1986Best Cinematography for a Miniseries or Special Peter the Great 2001 Frank Herbert's Dune
Cannes Film Festival Year Category Title Result Ref. 1998 Technical Grand Prize Tango, no me dejes nunca
International Film Festival of India Year Category Result Ref. 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award
British Society of Cinematographers Year Category Title Result 1979Best Cinematography Apocalypse Now 1988 The Last Emperor 1990 Dick Tracy
National Society of Film Critics Year Category Title Result 1972 Best Cinematography The Conformist
New York Film Critics Circle Awards Year Category Title Result 1987Best Cinematography The Sheltering Sky 1990 The Last Emperor
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Year Category Title Result 1981Best Cinematography Reds 1988 The Last Emperor
George Eastman Award Year Category Result 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award
Goya Awards Year Category Title Result 1996Best Cinematography Flamenco (de Carlos Saura) 1999 Tango, no me dejes nunca 2000 Goya en Burdeos
References
General
. Note: User must define search parameters, i.e. "Vittorio Storaro."
Further reading Masters of Light - Conversations with cinematographers (1984) Schaefer, S & Salvato, L., Writer of Light: The Cinematography of Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC (2000) Zone, R., Vittorio Storaro: Writing with Light: Volume 1: The Light (2002) Storaro, V.,
External links
International Cinematographers Guild Interview Vittorio Storaro Website (Italian or English)