Over the years there have been several Italian directors able to stand out on the international scene for timeless successes. In this article on the blog of "Teach me Italians" we will try to group which are some of the most beloved Italian directors in the world.
One could not fail to include in this list, Paolo Sorrentino, certainly the most famous Italian director of the last decade internationally thanks above all to the success of "The Great Beauty" (2013), winner of the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. In addition to referring to Fellini's La dolce vita, Sorrentino wanted to convey what is the idealized image, loved very much abroad, of a Rome not too different from the Fellini one of the 60s. But the Neapolitan director went further, shooting two international co-productions with a foreign cast such as "This Must Be the Place" (2011) starring Sean Penn, and "Youth" (2015), a film with Michael Caine in the role of an elderly conductor, which recalls "8 1/2". The last masterpiece is the autobiographical "It was the hand of God".
Together with Paolo Sorrentino, Gabriele Muccino has also made himself known abroad, especially in the United States, with four films that somehow form a subgenre in his filmography. "The Pursuit of Happiness" (2006) and "Seven Souls" (2008), starring Will Smith. But also "What I know about love" (2012) and "Fathers and daughters" (2015).
Among the most beloved Italian directors abroad of all time we cannot fail to mention Sergio Leone, who was among the pioneers of the spaghetti-western genre, as well as a model for directors such as Quentin Tarantino and Stanley Kubrick. Despite having worked extensively in Italy as an assistant director, screenwriter and in some cases as an actor – famous for his cameo in "Ladri di biciclette" by Vittorio De Sica – all his films have seen the light abroad, with mainly international casts.
His latest film, "Once Upon a Time in America", is considered one of the greatest films in the history of cinema, to underline how this director has been able to leave his mark outside his country of origin, from which he has never completely left, continuing to surround himself with Italian collaborators, including Ennio Morricone, with whom he has forged one of the most fruitful partnerships in the history of cinema.
As well as Sergio Leone, another Italian director who has signed some of the greatest films in the history of cinema, is Bernardo Bertolucci, the only Italian director to have won an Oscar for Best Director, for "The Last Emperor" (1987). The latter film is in fact one of his most famous works, along with films such as "Last Tango in Paris" (1976), "Novecento" (1976), "Tea in the Desert" (1990) and "The Dreamers" (2003).
One of Bertolucci's strengths was that he was able to range from the historical genre to the erotic, up to the sentimental. He was one of the most eclectic directors of Italian cinema, while maintaining his own recognizable poetics from film to film, poetics that made him appreciated all over the world, so much so that he earned him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
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