Born: 18 December 1920, Teramo, Abruzzi, Italy.

Died: 3 January 1966, Rome, Italy [during prod of 'The Honey Pot'].

Education: Studied at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia for 1 year.

Career: Was c.asst to Massimo Terzano, Otello Martelli, Aldo Tonti, a.o. In 1953, he ph 15 short tvm's for USA tv.

Alan Bacchelli dir [+ ph] the short [40m] doc: 'Gianni Di Venanzo: un grande autore della fotografia' [interviews with directors and cinematographers who worked with or were influenced by Di Venanzo].

His son Massimo is a doph.

Awards: Italian Film Journalists 'Silver Ribbon' Award [1958] for 'Il grido', [1960] for 'I magliari', [1963] for 'Salvatore Giuliano', [1964] for '8½' & [1966] for 'Giulietta degli spiriti'.

Gianni Di Venanzo began his career during World War II as camera assistant to Aldo Tonti, Otello Martelli and others, working on the films of key neorealist directors such as Visconti, Rossellini, De Santis and De Sica. Given his training in the flat documentary style favored by these filmmakers, as well as the more somber approach of Tonti, it is all the more surprising that he developed in his work with Michelangelo Antonioni the bleached-out, shimmering whiteness that now so strongly evokes classic Italian black and white cinematography.

Working with Antonioni, particularly on 'Le amiche', he also developed a capacity for filming complex and changing groupings of actors, experience that proved useful when he worked with Fellini on 'Otto e mezzo'. Fellini's masterpiece can also be seen as Di Venanzo's, with its subtle gradations of light and shadow essential in helping the viewer to navigate this complex assemblage of dream, memory, imagination and reality.

Di Venanzo put his early experience as a cameraman to good use also in his work with Francesco Rosi, particularly in 'Salvatore Giuliano' and 'Le mani sulla città'. In these films he recreated the documentary feeling of neorealism, adding another level of chronological signification to each.

He was universally lauded for his perfectionism and the variety of his photographic talents. John Gillett says these opinions were based on Di Venanzo's "...extraordinary ability to establish a rapport with each director; a facility for sensing the particular textures they sought after; and sheer tenacity in getting those precise effects on to celluloid." His untimely death at 45 from hepatitis has cast him into an undeserved obscurity in film history. Had he survived he would surely equal, and perhaps surpass, the reputation now held only by Vittorio Storaro among Italian cinematographers. [From article by Stephen Brophy.]

1945        Giorni di gloria/Days of Glory [various] b&w; doc/71m; cph: Arthur Reed, Massimo Terzano, Giovanni Pucci, a.o.

1949        Cantoria d'Angeli [Desiderio Hamza = Dezsö Ákos Hamza] b&w; doc/?m

1949        La scuola di Severino [Tito Guerrini] b&w; doc/?m

1949        Pesca a Mazzara del Vallo [Y. Fallette] b&w; doc/?m

1949        Ponti e porte di Roma [Desiderio Hamza = Dezsö Ákos Hamza] b&w; doc/?m

1949        La primavera del papa [Desiderio Hamza = Dezsö Ákos Hamza] b&w; doc/?m

1950        Procida [Ugo Fasano] b&w; doc/10m

1950        S. Carlino [Ugo Fasano] b&w; doc/?m

1950        Carrara [G.L. Lomazi] b&w; doc/?m

1951        Lo scocciatore pubblico no. 1 [Riccardo Moschino] b&w; doc/10m

1951        Achtung! Banditi!/Attention! Bandits! [Carlo Lizzani] b&w

1951        Il capitano di Venezia [Gianni Puccini] b&w

1952        Personaggi di un sogno [Aldo Rubens] b&w; doc/10m

1952        Er fattaccio [Riccardo Moschino] b&w

1952        La minute de vérité/L'ora della verità/The Moment of Truth [Jean Delannoy] b&w; cph: Luise Hölscher & Robert

                    Lefebvre

1952        Ai margini della metropoli [Carlo Lizzani] b&w

1953        Amore in città/Love in the City [seg 'L'amore che si paga' dir by Carlo Lizzani, 'Tentato suicidio' dir by Michelangelo

                    Antonioni, 'Paradiso per tre ore' dir by Dino Risi, 'Agenzia matrimoniale' dir by Federico Fellini, 'Storia di Caterina' dir by

                    Francesco Maselli & 'Gli italiani si voltano' dir by Alberto Lattuado] b&w

1953        Cronache di poveri amanti/Chronicle of Poor Lovers [Carlo Lizzani] b&w

1953        Terra straniera/Foreign Earth [Sergio Corbucci] b&w; shot 1953 & May 1954; re-edited in 1958 as 'Miniera tragica'

1954        Donne e soldati [Luigi Malerba & Antonio Marchi] b&w

1954        Le ragazze di San Frediano/The Girls of San Frediano [Valerio Zurlini] b&w

1955        Le amiche/The Girlfriends [Michelangelo Antonioni] b&w

1955        Lo scapolo/El soltero/The Bachelor [Antonio Pietrangeli] b&w; re-edited as 'Alberto il conquistatore'

1955        Gli sbandati/Abandoned [Francesco Maselli] b&w

1955        Quando tramonta il sole [Guido Brignone] cs/c

1956        Difendo il mio amore/Defend My Love/I'll Defend You My Love [Giulio Macchi & (superv) Vincent Sherman] b&w

1956        Suor Letizia/Il più grande amore/The Awakening/When Angels Don't Fly [Mario Camerini] b&w

1956        Terrore sulla città [Anton Giulio Majano] b&w

1956        Kean [: genio e sregolatezza] [Vittorio Gassman & Francesco Rosi] vv/c

1957        Il grido/The Cry [Michelangelo Antonioni] b&w

1957        Rascel Fifì [Guido Leoni] b&w

1957        Un ettaro di cielo/Piece of the Sky [Aglauco Casadio] b&w

1957        La loi... c'est la loi/La legge è legge/The Law Is the Law [Christian-Jaque] b&w

1958        La sfida/The Challenge [Francesco Rosi] b&w

1958        I soliti ignoti/Big Deal on Madonna Street/Persons Unknown [Mario Monicelli] b&w

1958        La prima notte/Venetian Honeymoon [Alberto Cavalcanti] Totalscope/c

1958        Rascel marine [Guido Leoni] Totalscope/c

1959        Nel blu dipinto di blu/Volare [Piero Tellini] b&w

1959        Vento del Sud/South Wind [Enzo Provenzale] b&w

1959        Il nemico di mia moglie/Il marito bello/My Wife's Enemy [Gianni Puccini] b&w

1959        I magliari [Francesco Rosi] b&w

1959        Urlatori alla sbarra/Metti, Celentano e Mina.../Howlers of the Dock [Lucio Fulci] b&w

1960        Un mandarino per Teo [Mario Mattoli] Totalscope/c

1960        I delfini/The Dauphins [Francesco Maselli] vv/b&w

1960        La notte/The Night [Michelangelo Antonioni] Panoramica/b&w

1960        Crimen/...And Suddenly It's Murder!/Criminals/Killing in Monte Carlo [Mario Camerini] Totalscope/b&w

1961        Il carabiniere a cavallo [Carlo Lizzani] b&w

1961        Salvatore Giuliano [Francesco Rosi] b&w

1962        L'eclisse/[The] Eclipse [Michelangelo Antonioni] b&w

1962        Eva/Eve [Joseph Losey] b&w; uncred cph (Venice Festival): Henri Decaë

1962        8½/Otto e mezzo [Federico Fellini] b&w

1962        I basilischi/The Lizards [Lina Wertmüller] b&w

1963        Le mani sulla città/Hands Over the City [Francesco Rosi] Panoramica/b&w

1963        La ragazza di Bube/Bebo's Girl [Luigi Comencini] vv/b&w

1963        Gli indifferenti/Time of Indifference [Francesco Maselli] b&w

1963        Alta infedeltà/High Infidelity [seg 'Gente moderna/Modern People' dir by Mario Monicelli] b&w; 4 seg; other ph: Ennio

                    Guarnieri (3 seg)

1964        La donna è una cosa meravigliosa [seg 'La balena bianca' dir by Mauro Bolognini] b&w; 4 seg; other ph: Otello

                    Martelli; animated interludes in color

1964        Oggi, domani, dopodomani/Kiss the Other Sheik/The Man, the Woman and the Money [seg 'La moglie bionda'

                    dir by Luciano Salce] p/b&w-c; 3 seg; other ph: Aldo Tonti & Mario Montuori

1964        Il momento della verità/The Moment of Truth [Francesco Rosi] ts/c; cph: Pasqualino De Santis & Aiace Parolin

1964        Giulietta degli spiriti/Juliet of the Spirits [Federico Fellini] Panoramica/c

1965        Il morbidone/The Dreamer [Massimo Franciosa] Panoramica/c; cph: Giuseppe Aquari

1965        La decima vittima/The Tenth Victim/The 10th Victim [Elio Petri] c

1965        The Honey Pot/It Comes Up Murder/Mr. Fox of Venice/The Honeypot [Joseph L. Mankiewicz] c; finished by

                    (uncred) Pasquale De Santis; prod was started by doph Piero Portalupi

1941        Fari nella nebbia [Gianni Franciolini & Marco Elter] co-c.asst; ph: Aldo Tonti

1942        Un colpo di pistola/A Pistol Shot [Renato Castellani] co-c.asst; ph: Massimo Terzano

1942        Ossessione [Luchino Visconti] co-c.asst; ph: Domenico Scala & Aldo Tonti

1945        Roma, città aperta/Rome, Open City [Roberto Rossellini] co-c.asst; ph: Ubaldo Arata

1945        Paisà/Paisan [Roberto Rossellini] co-c.asst; ph: Otello Martelli

1946        Caccia tragica/The Tragic Hunt/The Tragic Pursuit [Giuseppe De Santis] co-c.asst; ph: Otello Martelli

1947        La terra trema [: Episodio del mare]/The Earth Trembles [Luchino Visconti] c.op; ph: G.R. Aldo

1949        La beauté du diable/La bellezza del diavolo/Beauty and the Beast/Beauty and the Devil [René Clair] c.op;

                    ph: Michel Kelber

1950        Miracolo a Milano/Miracle in Milan [Vittorio De Sica] c.op; ph: G.R. Aldo