Franco Piavoli was an Italian filmmaker, director, and screenwriter. He was born in 1933 in Ferrara, Italy and died in 2019.
Piavoli studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, where he graduated in 1957. His thesis film, La Prima Dammi un Bicchiere di Latte (1957), was a short documentary about a Sicilian milkmaid. This film marked the beginning of Piavoli’s career, which was focused on the relationship between nature, man, and animals.
Piavoli directed his first feature film in 1964, titled Una Giornata Particolare (A Special Day). This film starred Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni and French actress Sophia Loren and was the highest-grossing film of the year in Italy. Piavoli was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for this film.
In the late 1960s, Piavoli began working on a series of documentaries about nature and animals. These films were highly acclaimed and earned him international recognition. His most notable works in this genre include Il Cielo Cade (The Sky Falls, 1970), Il Leone di San Marco (The Lion of St. Mark, 1972), and Tuareg: Il Signore del Deserto (Tuareg: The Lord of the Desert, 1984), the latter of which earned him the Silver Ribbon for best documentary at the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists in 1984.
Piavoli continued to make films until his death in 2019. His last feature film was Il Volo (The Flight, 2001), a romantic comedy-drama starring Italian actress Isabella Ferrari and French actor Paul Walker.
Throughout his career, Piavoli was awarded numerous prizes, including the David di Donatello for Best Director (1969), the Silver Ribbon for Best Director (1973), and the Nastro d’Argento for Best Screenplay (1985). He was also awarded an honorary degree from La Sapienza University in Rome in 2010.
Piavoli’s films are characterized by his unique visual style and his focus on the relationship between man and nature. His films have been praised for their poetic style and their ability to capture the beauty and fragility of nature. Piavoli’s influence can be seen in the works of many contemporary filmmakers, such
