Franco Zeffirelli Movies
Italian director Franco Zeffirelli started out as an actor in the stage productions of Luchino Visconti, then worked as an assistant on several Visconti-directed films. After World War II, Zeffirelli launched a career designing, costuming, and directing operas, a field of entertainment to which he'd return periodically throughout his life and which led to his first directorial credit, the Swiss-produced filmization La Boheme (1965). Zeffirelli's reputation in the 1960s rested on his boisterous, non-traditional movie versions of Shakespeare. He directed Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in a lusty adaptation of Taming of the Shrew (1967), then became an icon for the Youth Movement by casting 17-year-old Leonard Whiting and 15-year-old Olivia Hussey in Romeo and Juliet (1968). Zeffirelli's eye for visual richness served him well in the opulent Brother Sun/Sister Moon (1973), a romanticized account of Francis of Assisi. Some of Zeffirelli's later American films were unworthy of his talents, though he made the most of the emotional possibilities of The Champ (1979) and actually helped Brooke Shields pass as an actress in the otherwise lachrymose Endless Love (1981). The director found himself in the center of a controversy upon finishing the expensive Euro-American TV miniseries Jesus of Nazareth; certain religious activists, upset that the ads promised a "human" look at Jesus, forced several sponsors to withdraw their advertising from the telecast. (The "scandal" proved groundless, since Zeffirelli's Jesus was one of the most reverently accurate ever seen in films.) Zeffirelli has been represented by his televised stagings of operas, many of which have shown up on American public television. And in 1990, Franco Zeffirelli returned to Shakespeare for an all-star film version of Hamlet, wherein the "surprise" was not so much Mel Gibson's superb rendition of the title role as the fact that this was the first movie Hamlet that looked like it was actually taking place in 12th century Denmark. He finished out the 20th century be helming the 1996 version of Jane Eyre and 1999's Tea With Mussolini. As the 2000s got under way, Zeffirelli focused primarily on directing opera and many of his stage creations were recorded and released on home video or played briefly in movie theaters. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 2010
Directed by Franco Zeffirelli and mounted by the Area di Verona, this production of Puccini's iconic opera stars Carlo Bosi, Maria Guleghina, Savatore Licitra and Luiz-Ottavio Faria. Giuliano Carelia conducts. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Maria Guleghina, Carlo Bosi, (more)
- 2009
Acclaimed director Franco Zeffirelli (Otello) mounted and designed the sets for this 2009 stage production of Giacomo Puccini's 1926 opera Turandot, with a cast that includes Maria Guleghina in the title role, Marina Poplavskaya as Liù, Marcello Giordani as Calaf and Samuel Ramey as Timur. The Metropolitan Opera, Orchestra, Chorus and Ballet lend accompaniment, with Donald Palumbo serving as chorus master and Andris Nelsons conducting. Gary Halvorson directs for the stage and Chiang Ching created the choreography. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Maria Guleghina, Marina Poplavskaya, (more)
- 2008
Experience Franco Zeffirelli's lavish production of the Puccini favorite La Bohème in this release of a live performance conducted by Nicola Luisotti, and featuring the magnificent voices of Angela Gheorghiu, Ainhoa Arteta, and Ramón Vargas. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Angela Gheorghiu
- 2007
The legendary director Franco Zeffirelli is arguably as well known for his operatic stage work as for his filmmaking; he helms this production of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, staged at Teatro la Scala in Milan. Roberto Alagna and Violeta Urmana co-star as the leads. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marco Spotti, Ildiko Komlosi, (more)
- 2004
Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly comes to life on stage in a 2004 production captured live at the Arena di Verdona and directed for the stage by Franco Zeffirelli. Daniel Oren conducts the Orchestra dell'Arena di Verona, and Fiorenza Cedolins, Francesca Franci, and Mina Blum star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fiorenza Cedolins
- 2003
This 2003 performance of Giacomo Puccini's La Bohème at the Teatro Degli Arcimboldi in Milan was directed for the stage by theater and film legend Franco Zeffirelli, who also did the set design. Featured performers include Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, Hei-Kyung Hong, Marcelo Álvarez, and Roberto Servile. ~ Dana Rowader, Rovi
- 2003
This 2003 performance of Georges Bizet's 19th century opera Carmen was produced and directed by filmmaker and stage director Franco Zeffirelli, best known to many for the Academy Award-winning big-screen adaptation of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Shot at the Arena di Verona, the production features Marina Domashenko in the title role and music by the Orchestra of the Arena di Verona under conductor Alain Lombard. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- 2002
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As mounted by the Teatro Giuseppe Verdi in Busseto, Parma, and helmed by stage and film director Franco Zeffirelli (Endless Love), this 2002 production of Verdi's iconic opera La Traviata stars Violetta Valery as Stefania Bonfadelli, Flora Bervoix as Annely Peebo, and Annina as Paola Leveroni. El Camborio choreographs; The Orchestra and Chorus of the Fondazione Arturo Toscanini provide musical accompaniment. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Stefania Bonfadelli
A mournful look at the last days of opera diva Maria Callas, director Franco Zeffirelli's biographical drama attempts to explore the irresistible allure of a comeback for a fallen star who hungers for the success of her past. Weathered from the excess of the previous decade and with her best performances long behind her, Callas (Fanny Ardant) withdraws to her Paris apartment to live her final days in seclusion. Despite being ravaged by a throat disease and being stuck in an extended period of mourning following the death of her true love, Callas' manager Larry Kelly (Jeremy Irons) nevertheless suggests that the former reigning queen of opera attempt a spectacular comeback. Though she is physically unable to perform the pieces the way that she once did, the suggestion to lip-sync to recordings of her previous performances offers a tentative chance for latter day fame. Despite her belief that lip-syncing her performance would be dishonest to her fans, the prospect of performing Carmen, an opera that she once recorded but never performed on stage, offers Callas one last shot at reliving her former glory. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fanny Ardant, Jeremy Irons, (more)
- 2002
Legendary Italian filmmaker Luchino Visconti's life and remarkable cinematic achievements are investigated in depth in Adam Low's 2002 documentary produced by the BBC entitled The Life and Times of Count Luchino Visconti. Born into Italian aristocracy in 1906, Visconti's life was one of discontented listlessness until he took a position on French director Jean Renoir's 1936 film Une Partie de Campagne. This development would greatly influence the young Italian's own entry -- not to mention his entire career -- into filmmaking, starting in 1943 with Ossessione, which was simultaneously his directorial debut and the masterwork that launched the Italian neorealist movement. Many of Visconti's colleagues and contemporaries are interviewed by Low, including such luminaries as Claudia Cardinale, Farley Granger, Franco Zeffirelli, and Helmut Berger. The Life and Times of Count Luchino Visconti premiered at the 2002 London Film Festival in connection with a Visconti retrospective produced by the British Film Institute in 2003. ~ Ryan Shriver, Rovi
- Starring:
- Helmut Berger, Meralda Caracciolo Di Melito, (more)
- 2001
Perhaps best known as the director of such films as Tea With Mussolini and 1968's Oscar-winning Romeo and Juliet, Franco Zeffirelli is also a Tony Award winner and has made a name for himself for his work on the stage. With direction and set design by Zeffirelli, this release from TDK Mediactive features a 2001 performance of Giuseppe Verdi's classic opera Aida. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- 2001
Perhaps best known as the director of such films as Tea With Mussolini and 1968's Oscar-winning Romeo and Juliet, Franco Zeffirelli is also a Tony Award winner and has made a name for himself for his work on the stage. With direction and set design by Zeffirelli, this release from TDK Mediactive features a 2001 performance of Giuseppe Verdi's classic opera Aida. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
Based in part on his autobiography, director Franco Zeffirelli's Tea With Mussolini is a drama with comic accents about a group of British and American travelers on an indefinite visit to Italy in 1935, when, as one character puts it, "Mussolini was just a man who made the trains run on time." Luca (played by Charlie Lucas) is a boy living in Florence whose family situation is precarious at best; his mother has died and his father has little time for him. Fortunately, he's a welcome guest with Mary (Joan Plowright), a English woman visiting Italy to soak up European culture. Mary and her friends -- high-toned Lady Hester (Maggie Smith), pretentious Arabella (Judi Dench), American art collector Elsa (Cher) and cheerful lesbian Georgie (Lily Tomlin) -- enjoy the cultured, creative atmosphere of life in Italy, and their initial response to the rise of fascism is to arrange a polite meeting with Mussolini to make sure he and his soldiers mean well. After some time, Luca's father becomes concerned that the boy is soaking up too much British influence and enrolls him in a boarding school in Austria; by the time 1940 rolls around, situations have changed radically for everyone. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cher, Judi Dench, (more)
- 1996
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Gaetano Donizetti's two-act, comic opera is performed before a live audience at Milan's Teatro alla Scala in this 1996 production featuring libretto by J.H. Vernoy De Saint-Georges and Jean F.A. Bayard. Ewa Podles and Bruno Pratico star, and the Orchestra of the Teatro alla Scala perform under conductor Donato Renzetti. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ewa Podles, Bruno Praticò, (more)
Director Franco Zeffirelli stresses emotional realism over gothic chills in this restrained adaptation of Charlotte Bronte's classic. The screenplay, by Zeffirelli and Hugh Whitmore, remains relatively faithful to the original story, beginning with a condensed look at the troubled childhood of young Jane (Anna Paquin) and her mistreatment by a cruel aunt (Fiona Shaw). The bulk of the film centers on Jane as an adult (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a prim governess who accepts a position at Thornfield Hall caring for the young Adele (Josephine Serre). There Jane also must deal with the estate's head, Edward Rochester (William Hurt), a mysteriously brooding yet oddly alluring older man. She finds herself drawn to Rochester, but their potential romance is threatened by Jane's fears and Rochester's internal torment. Rather than the spooky visuals of earlier adaptations, Zeffirelli and cinematographer David Watkins opt for a subdued gloominess, placing emphasis on Gainsbourg's and Hurt's wounded portrayals. Fans of the gothic will likely find Zeffirelli's interpretation anemic in comparison to the passionate 1944 version with Joan Fontaine and Orson Welles, though others may appreciate the more naturalistic and faithful approach. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- William Hurt, Charlotte Gainsbourg, (more)
- 1993
It is the 19th century in Italy, and Maria (Angela Bettis) has joined a convent in order to explore her strong feeling that she has a calling to become a nun. She has adapted to live at the convent quite nicely, and is relatively untroubled, but a cholera outbreak sends her back to be with her family for a while, near the steaming peak of Mount Etna. She enjoys her freedom to move around the countryside, and is wooed (unsuccessfully, it seems) by a charming young man named Nico, but returns to the convent when the danger is past. There, she is troubled by the thought that she truly loved Nico, and that her calling may not be as firm as she thought. When she learns that Nico has married her sister, she nearly goes mad with self-recrimination, but eventually weathers the storm. All the dialog in this Italian-made film by Franco Zeffirelli is in English. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Angela Bettis, Johnathon Schaech, (more)
Franco Zeffirelli directs his third Shakespeare adaptation (after Romeo and Juliet and Otello) with this film version of the tragedy Hamlet. The titular prince of Denmark (Mel Gibson), returns home to his family's castle of Elsinore after years of attending school in Germany to find out his father has died and his uncle Claudius (Alan Bates) is the new king. To make matters worse, Claudius has married Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude (Glenn Close), whom he has unusually strong feelings for. Hamlet is visited by his father's ghost (Paul Scofield), who asks him to seek revenge for his murder. In order to find out who the real killer is, Hamlet stages a theatrical scene resembling his father's death. Claudius is upset by the production and leaves to arrange for Hamlet's murder. In the ensuing confusion, Hamlet accidentally kills Polonious (Ian Holm) instead of Claudius; Hamlet's lover, Ophelia (Helena Bonham Carter), goes mad and commits suicide; and eventually Hamlet and Claudius both meet their fate. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mel Gibson, Glenn Close, (more)
- 1988
This biographical costume drama from director Franco Zeffirelli covers the early life of Arturo Toscanini and stars C. Thomas Howell as the famous composer. When Arturo lands a job with the orchestra of Claudio Rossi (John Rhys-Davies), he soon finds himself bound for a tour of South America and lands in idyllic Rio. Arturo is given the task of convincing the famed prima donna diva Nadina Bulichoff (Elizabeth Taylor) to rehearse for an upcoming show with the orchestra, but in the process, Toscanini attempts to change the minds of both Nadina and her lover, Brazilian Emperor Don Pedro II (Philippe Noiret) on the issue of slavery. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- Starring:
- C. Thomas Howell, Elizabeth Taylor, (more)
- 1987
Survey of the history of Italian cinema, featuring clips from such classics as "Open City," "8-1/2," and "Seven Beauties," and interviews with illustrious stars and filmmakers, including Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni, Toto, Monica Vitti, Anna Magnani, Vittorio DeSica, Federico Fellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Roberto Rossellini. ~ Nicole Gagne, Rovi
This documentary chronicles the life of the most exciting opera singer of her generation. Her soprano voice, with its exceptional expressive powers, enabled Maria Callas to become the first singer in a century to perform in the intricate Romantic style, conveying tremendous emotional range and dramatic intensity. She became the prime force in the late 20th century revival of Bellini, Rossini, and Donizetti. Born in New York of Greek parentage, her family returned to Greece, where she studied voice, and had her debut in Athens in 1941, going on to perform in New York and Italy. The film gives insight into the singer's character, as well as her career. It celebrates her singing and dramatic skills, and explores the woman behind the public persona . The events of her life were always newsworthy, particularly her long relationship with Aristotle Onassis, for whom she gave up her career and left her husband, in expectation of her marriage to the Greek shipping magnate. Instead, Onassis discarded her and chose to marry Jacqueline Kennedy. Callas became a recluse in Paris, where she died in 1977, at the age of 53, her tragic life reading much like one of the operas she so vividly portrayed. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, Rovi
Having previously staged Verdi's 1887 opera Otello at the Met and La Scala, filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli committed his production to film in 1986. Starring as the fatally jealous Moor of Venice is Placido Domingo, who had also headlined Zeffirelli's 1976 La Scala staging (production on the film was briefly interrupted while Domingo participated in the rescue operations following the Mexico City earthquake). While Katia Ricciarelli as Desdemona and Justino Diaz as Iago perform their own singing, Zeffirelli's Cassio--played by real-life European prince Urbano Barberini--is dubbed by Ezio de Cesare. The director made several cuts in the original libretto and score in order to accommodate the film's two-hour time limit, but these excisions are done with taste and discretion. Because of the excessive violence in the third act--two murders, a suicide, a superficial throat-slashing--Otello was released with a PG rating. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Plácido Domingo, Katia Ricciarelli, (more)
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