Oscar-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro, who filmed Academy Award winners Apocalypse Now, Reds and The Last Emperor as well as Last Tango In Paris, The Conformist and Dick Tracy, was recently in Florence to attend an event hosted by Istituto Lorenzo de’ Medici.
Storaro, born in Rome in 1940, first worked with director Bernardo Bertolucci in 1966, marking the beginning of a fruitful relationship that would lead to his collaborations with Francis Ford Coppola and Warren Beatty.
Storaro, who is revered for not only his cinematographic skill, titles and awards, but also his intellect and knowledge, spoke at the event. He believes cinema is just one facet of culture, and that to understand and create great cinema, one must know about philosophy, music, art and architecture.
He told the audience about the times in his career when he would turn down work in order to study and learn so that he would be ready to start afresh for his next project. Commenting about the new technology used in filmmaking, he noted, slightly disparagingly, that the industry has changed beyond recognition, along with the technology that has opened filmmaking to anyone using all manner of devices. He noted that he wrote his book The Art of Cinematography to pay homage to the world’s greatest cinematographers and to share his knowledge of this art form.
