Franco Zeffirelli

At 96 years old, Franco Zeffirelli has this physical status:

Gian Franco Zeffirelli (born in 1923) was an Italian stage and film director, film designer, and politician. He was one of the most influential opera and theatre designers of the postwar II period, gaining both praise and renown for his lavish stagings of classical works as well as film adaptations of the same. He served as the Senator for Catania from 1994 to 2001 and was a member of the Forza Italia party.

He directed The Taming of the Shrew (1967), starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton; Romeo and Juliet (1968), starring Mel Gibson and Glenn Close; and Hamlet (1990), which starred Mel Gibson and Glenn Close. Jesus of Nazareth (1977), a Biblical television miniseries, received both national and international recognition, and it is now widely distributed in many nations at Christmas and Easter.

Zeffirelli, a Grande Ufficiale OMRI of the Italian Republic, has also been granted an honorary British knighthood in 2004 when he was established a KBE. By the city of Rome in 2009, he was given the Premio Colosseo.

Early life

Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli was born in Florence, Tuscany, Italy, and he died. He was born after a match between Florentine Alaide Garosi, a fashion designer, and Ottorino Corsi, a wool and silk dealer from Vinci. Since both were married, Alaide was unable to use her surname or Corsi's for her child. She created "Zeffiretti," which are Mozart's "little breezes" in Mozart's opera Idomeneo, of which she was a fan. However, it was mistakenly entered in the register and became Zeffirelli. His mother died and he grew up under the English expatriate community's umbrella, and he was notably involved in the so-called Scorpioni, which inspired his semi-autobiographical film Tea with Mussolini (1999).

Zeffirelli was one of a select few living people traceably consanguineous with Leonardo da Vinci, according to Italian researchers. He was a descendant of one of da Vinci's siblings.

Zeffirelli graduated from Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze in 1941 and, on his father's advice, studied art and architecture at the University of Florence. He fought as a partisan until he met up with British troops of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards and became their interpreter after World War II ended. He returned to Florence to continue his studies after the war, but when he saw Laurence Olivier's Henry V in 1945, he directed his attention toward theatre instead.

He was introduced to Luchino Visconti, who hired him as an assistant director for the film La Terra trema, which was released in 1948, while working as a scene-painter in Florence. Visconti's methods had a major influence on Zeffirelli's later work. Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini were both film directors. He made his name directing and directing his own performances in London and New York City in the 1960s and then moved his attention to the cinema.

Personal life

Zeffirelli came out as gay in 1996, but he later preferred to remain anonymous about his personal life. Zeffirelli said he regarded himself as "homosexual" rather than gay, rather than gay, because the word "gay" was less elegant. Two adult sons, men with whom he had lived and who worked with him for years, were adopted by Zeffirelli, who was in charge of his finances.

During the filming of Romeo and Juliet, in which Robinson played Benvolio, director Bruce Robinson appeared to have been the object of unnecessary attention from Zeffirelli. Robinson claims he based Uncle Monty's lecherous appearance in the film Withnail and I on Zeffirelli.

In 2018, Johnathon Schaech, an American actor, said that Zeffirelli sexually assaulted him during Sparrow's filming (Storia di una capinera, 1993). Giuseppe "Pippo," the filmmaker's son who was adopted as an adult by the filmmaker, released a statement at the time denying the allegations.

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Career

Zeffirelli's first film as director was a recreation of The Taming of the Shrew (1967), which was originally intended for Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni but instead featured Hollywood actress Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in their place. Taylor and Burton assisted in with fund raising and received a share of the revenues rather than their regular salaries.

Zeffirelli's native Florence was devastated by floods when restoring The Taming of the Shrew. A month later, he released Florence: Days of Destruction, a short film aimed at raising money for the disaster appeal.

Zeffirelli's big breakthrough came a year after, when he introduced two teenagers as Romeo and Juliet (1968). It made Zeffirelli a household name – no other subsequent work by him had the same effect as Romeo and Juliet. In 1969, the film at the North American box office earned $14.5 million in domestic rentals. It was re-released in 1973 and earned $1.7 million in rentals.

"I think Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet is the most exciting film of Shakespeare ever made," film critic Roger Ebert, based in Chicago.

Following two excellent film adaptations of Shakespeare, Zeffirelli transitioned to religious subjects, first with a film about St. Francis of Assisi called Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972), followed by his extended mini-series Jesus of Nazareth (1977) with an all-star cast. The former was a big hit in the ratings.

With a remake of the boxing photograph The Champ (1979) and the highly panned Endless Love (1981), he embraced new themes. He made a string of commercials adapting opera to the screen in the 1980s, starring such as Plácido Domingo, Teresa Stratas, Juan Pons, and Katia Ricciarelli. Mel Gibson was cast in the lead role in Shakespeare's return to Hamlet (1990). Jane Eyre, a Charlotte Bront book, was a critical success in his adaptation.

Leonard Whiting (Romeo and Juliet), Graham Faulkner (St. Francis in Brother Sun, Sister Moon), and Martin Hewitt (David Axelrod in Endless Love) were among the Zeffirelli's most notable roles: Leonard Whiting (Romeo and Juliet), Thomas Faulkner (British emperor), and Martin Hewitt.

Zeffirelli, the Italian and other parts of Europe, as well as the United States, was a leading opera producer in the 1950s. He began his work as assistant to Luchino Visconti. He tried his hand at scenography. Gioachino Rossini's first film as a director was buffo operas. In 1958, he became a friend of Maria Callas and they worked together on a La traviata in Dallas, Texas. Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi's 1964 Royal Opera House production Tosca is of particular note. He created Callas' last Norma at the Paris Opera in the same year. Zeffirelli also collaborated with Joan Sutherland, planning and directing her performances of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in 1959. He created several operas for the Metropolitan Opera in New York over the years, including La bohème, Tosca, Turandot, and Don Giovanni. He directed its first production, Antony and Cleopatra, starring Leontyne Price, when the new Metropolitan Opera opened in Lincoln Center.

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