On September 6, local time, veteran Italian director Giuliano Montaldo passed away peacefully at his home in Rome at the age of 93.

Giuliano Montaldo

Montaldo was active in the European film scene in the 1960s and 1970s. Compared to directors of his generation such as Sergio Leone, Bertolucci, and the Taviani brothers, Montaldo is not as well-known as he is. He was a frequent visitor to the three major European film festivals and is particularly famous for his political films that reflect a clear leftist stance. However, for Chinese audiences, Montaldo's most famous work is definitely the eight-episode TV series "Marco Polo" produced in 1982.

"Marco Polo" poster

Giuliano Montaldo was born on February 22, 1930 in Genoa, Italy. After graduating from the University of Turin, he moved to Rome and worked as a reporter in a newspaper. A few years later, he decided to switch to the film industry. In the 1950s, he served as an assistant under Carlo Lizani, Gilo Pontecorvo, Sergio Leone and Francesco Rossi. From these Italians I learned a lot from influential people.

In 1960, Montaldo became a director for the first time. The feature film "Last Resistance" was about the unfortunate experience of a recruit in Mussolini's army at the end of World War II. The film contains many profound reflections on the cruelty of war and the evil of fascist ideology, and was given the opportunity to be screened at the 1961 Venice Film Festival.

"The Last Resistance" poster

In 1965, Montaldo's second feature film "Reckless" went to the 15th Berlin Film Festival. Although the film failed to win the Golden Bear, the highest honor like Godard's "Alfa City", it received unanimous praise from critics for its sharp satire on the current situation of Italian society at the time. In the following years, Montaldo alternated between serious dramas and commercial films aimed at entertainment. He filmed the star-studded heist film "The Diamond Vault" and the gangster film "Desperate". The reflection on war continues in the anti-war film "God Is with Us."

Reckless poster

In 1971, Montaldo produced his most acclaimed masterpiece, "The Melody of the Execution Platform." The film is adapted from a true story and tells the story of two Italian-American immigrants, Sacco and Vanzetti, who suffered injustice and died unjustly in the 1920s.

"Melody of the Execution Table" poster

On April 15, 1920, an armed robbery occurred on the streets of Massachusetts, USA. Two shoe factory employees were unfortunately killed. Soon after, the police arrested Sacco and Vanzetti on suspicion of robbery and homicide. Both were outspoken anarchists who had participated in many strikes and had long been hated by local security forces and factory owners.

In 1921, the judge sentenced the two men to death. However, many contradictory witness testimonies during the trial and the strong hostility of the right-wing media and the general public towards the political stance of the two men also caused many people to question the unfairness of the trial. To show solidarity, European and American intellectual celebrities including Einstein, H.G. Wells, and Romain Rolland signed a petition, and left-wing groups around the world spoke out, including Ba Jin, who was studying abroad in France at the time. In 1927, Sacco and Vanzetti were finally sent to the electric chair and executed.

Today, nearly a hundred years later, there are still different opinions about the truth of this case, but no matter what, Montaldo was able to withstand various pressures, write and direct this conscientious masterpiece, and he is worthy of the label of Italy's left-wing conscientious director. At the 24th French Cannes Film Festival in 1971, Ricardo Cucciola, who starred in the film, won the Best Actor Award, and Morricone's film score for "The Melody of the Execution Bench" has already been recognized. Numerous viewers regard it as a classic.

In addition, Montaldo's works also include the biopic "Giordano Bruno" (1973), which shows the life of Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno, and the historical reflection film "Total" based on Italy's invasion of the African country Ethiopia. Attack" (1989) and the biopic "The Devil in St. Petersburg" (2008) about the life of Russian writer Dostoevsky.

The Devil in St. Petersburg poster

In 1981, the American national broadcaster NBC and the Italian radio and television company RAI filmed eight episodes of the TV series "Marco Polo", with Montaldo as the director. The play brings together many big-name Hollywood actors such as Burt Lancaster, Leonard Nimoy, Anne Bancroft, F. Murray Abraham, and Ying Ruocheng, who plays Kublai Khan, etc. Chinese actors also left a deep impression on the audience. However, during the filming of the drama in China, a lot of damage was caused to the Chang'en Hall of the Ming Tombs, which also cast a slight stain on this drama that once affected a large number of Chinese audiences.

Montaldo on the set of "Marco Polo"

In his later years, Montaldo served as the first president of the film company of the Italian radio and television company RAI. He won the Italian Film David Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2007, and "Industry" released in 2011 was his last directorial feature. work.