Adriano Aprà(1940-2024)

Adriano Aprà is considered one of the major Italian specialists in film history of his generation. He started his critical career by collaborating on "Filmcritica", and co-founding "Cinema e Film" (both magazines were the Roman equivalents of "Cahiers du cinema" or "Positif"), before being involved in the direction of the Pesaro and Salsomaggiore festivals. In 1970, Aprà also directed one feature film ("Olimpia agli amici", with actress Olimipia Carlisi and his own brother Pierluigi), then various documentaries, e.g. "Rossellini visto da Rossellini" [Rossellini seen by Rossellini] (1992). Author of many acclaimed books, translator of Andre Bazin's classic "What Is Cinema ?", he has been teaching film aesthetics at Rome's University, and became the head of the Italian Cineteca Nazionale in the 1990s. Young Adriano's cameos are significant in film such as Mario Schifano's experimental "Satellite" and "Trapianto, consuzione e morte di Franco Brocani" [Graft, consumption and death of Franco Brocani], Marco Ferreri's "The Seed of Man" and "Dillinger Is Dead", Bernardo Bertolucci's segment of "Love & Anger", as well as Jean-Marie Straub's and Daniele Huillet's "Othon", "Moses and Aaron", and "Fortini/Cani".