Pier Paolo Pasolini

Pier Paolo Pasolini born 5 March 1922 (d.1975)

Pasolini distinguished himself as a philosopher, linguist, novelist, playwright, filmmaker, newspaper and magazine columnist, actor, painter and political figure. He demonstrated a unique and extraordinary cultural versatility, in the process becoming a highly controversial figure.

Pier Paolo Pasolini is unquestionably one of the most important cultural figures to emerge from post-World War II Italy. But it is with film that he made his greatest impact.

Born in Bologna in 1922, Pasolini grew up in Friuli. While openly gay from the very start of his career (thanks to a gay sex scandal that sent him packing from his provincial hometown to live and work in Rome), Pasolini rarely dealt with homosexuality in his movies.

The subject is featured prominently in Teorema (1968); passingly in Arabian Nights (1974), in an idyll between a king and a commoner that ends in death; and, most darkly of all, in Salo (1975), his infamous rendition of the Marquis de Sade's compendium of sexual horrors, The 120 Days of Sodom.

Pasolini never saw himself as a 'gay artist'. Indeed, he explicitly rejected the assimilated gay middle-class he saw emerging just prior to his untimely death in 1975.

He began his career as a scriptwriter. When he broke out on his own as a writer-director with Accatone (1961) and Mamma Roma (1962), he was apparently styling himself after the masters of Italian neo-realism, especially Roberto Rossellini.

But in 1964 he found his moviemaking 'voice' with The Gospel According to St. Matthew. With a non-professional cast and a quasi-documentary shooting style, Pasolini retold the familiar story of the life of Christ in the simplest, least-Hollywood-like style imaginable.

While its musical score was fairly avant-garde, featuring as it did excerpts from the African Missa Luba, Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, and Mahalia Jackson singing Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child, the movie was accessible to audiences of all kinds.

Gospel was followed by The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966), a comic fable about the adventures of a Chaplinesque father and son team, played by the great Italian star Toto and Ninetto Davoli, a young former lover of Pasolini's who was to appear in many of the filmmaker's works.

Not one to stick to the 'expected', Pasolini next turned to Sophocles' Oedipus Rex (1967), presenting the drama as a fable set in the wilds of North Africa and modern Rome.

After that came Teorema (1968), one of Pasolini's most controversial works, in which a sexual 'exterminating angel' (Terence Stamp) has his way with an entire Italian family.

Questions were raised when Pasolini cast Maria Callas in his rendition of Medea (1970), a film in which the legendary diva was not required to sing a note.

But a sudden turn of popular fortune came when Pasolini made The Decameron (1971), The Canterbury Tales (1972), and Arabian Nights (1974). They are as uncompromising as any of his films, but their comic spirit, frequent sexual interludes, and abundant nudity pleased moviegoers as no Pasolini work had done before.

And then came the posthumously released Salo. Most of the critics responded as though the horrors displayed in the film came directly from the gay Italian's feverish imagination. But all Pasolini did was extract selected passages of Sade and reset them in the last days of the fascist republic of Salo, the state-within-a-state established in the twilight of Mussolini's Italy.

His most visually elegant and dramatically reserved work, Salo offers Sade's vision of old, wealthy, evil authorities (politicians, lawyers and bishops) having their way with nude and compliant youths and maidens of the lower classes as simply standard operational procedure for the powers that be.

Despite the outrage of some critics who complained of the director's decadence and depravity, the film actually presents a scrupulous version of the everyday reality of man's inhumanity to man.

Pasolini died on November 2, 1975 at the beach of Ostia, near Rome, in a location typical of his novels. He was murdered brutally by being run over several times with his own car. Giuseppe Pelosi, a hustler, was arrested and confessed to murdering Pasolini. In May 2005, he retracted his confession, claiming that unidentified men had killed Pasolini (he spoke of three strangers, with a southern Italian accent, insulting Pasolini as a 'filthy communist'). He gave threats of violence against his family as the reason for his erstwhile confession. The investigation into Pasolini's death was reopened following Pelosi's recantation.

His murder is still not completely explained: some contradictions in the declarations of Pelosi, a strange intervention by Italian secret services during the investigations and some lack of coherence of related documents during the different parts of the judicial procedures brought some of Pasolini's friends to suspect that his murder had been commissioned. An enquiry of Pasolini's friend Oriana Fallaci brought up the inefficiency of the investigations; many clues indicate as unlikely that Pelosi killed Pasolini alone. It is true, indeed, that Pasolini, in the months just before his death, had seen many politicians, telling them that he was aware of certain crucial secrets. Following Pelosi's statement of May 2005, the Rome police reopened the murder case; judges, however, considered the new elements insufficient to continue.

Evidence uncovered in 2005 points to Pasolini being murdered by an extortionist. Testimony by Pasolini's friend Sergio Citti indicates that some of the film rolls from Salò were stolen and Pasolini was going to meet with the thieves. He told others that he knew he would be murdered by the Mafia. Shortly after he was found dead.

Domenico Dolce

Domenico Dolce born 13 August 1958

Domenico Dolce is an Italian fashion designer and half of the famous duo Dolce&Gabbana [Dolce pictured left].

Born in Polizzi Generosa a small village near Palermo, Sicily, Dolce studied fashion design in Sicily and worked in his family's small clothing factory.

Stefano Gabbana had no fashion education; he had studied graphic design. Dolce and Gabbana met in 1980 when they were working as assistants in an atelier in Milan. When they started business together in 1982, they continued to do freelance designing for others.

Their first collection in 1986 won international acclaim, and their first boutique opened in 1989 in Japan. In 1990 they presented their first men's collection and opened their first women's boutique in Milan. That same year, the duo began designing the Complice line for the Genny Group in Milan (Complice had been designed by Versace from 1975 to 1981, and then by Claude Montana until 1987.) Scarves, ties, beachwear, perfume, and accessories were added in 1992.

Dolce&Gabbana are on the same line of contemporary Italian couture houses as Armani, Gucci, Versace, Prada and Moschino. Sexy and glamorous, hugely popular with Hollywood and celebrities, Dolce&Gabbana have become one of the defining high-end fashion houses of recent years.

Dolce and Gabbana announced on 20 February 2005 that they would split up after 19 years, having been one of the world's most high-profile gay couples. Stefano Gabbana said that, 'This is a love split, not a business split'. Moreover he said, 'Domenico and I are still very good friends and, as for the working relationship, we are still very much together. Business, in fact, has never been better.'

Gian Carlo Menotti

Gian Carlo Menotti born 7 July 1911 (d. 2007)

Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italian-born American composer and librettist who wrote the classic Christmas opera Amahl and the Night Visitors among about two dozen other operas intended to appeal to popular taste. He won the Pulitzer Prize for two of them, The Consul (1950) and The Saint of Bleecker Street (1955).

Born in Cadegliano-Viconago, Italy, Lake Maggiore and the Swiss border. Menotti began writing songs when he was seven years old, and at eleven wrote both the libretto and music for his first opera, The Death of Pierrot. He began his formal musical training at Milan's Verdi Conservatory in 1923.

After the death of his father, Menotti and his mother emigrated to the United States, and he enrolled at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music. Fellow students at Curtis included Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber, who became Menotti's partner in life and in work, with Menotti crafting the libretto for Barber's most famous opera, Vanessa, which premiered in 1958, at the Metropolitan Opera. It was at Curtis that Menotti wrote his first mature opera, Amelia al Ballo (Amelia Goes to the Ball), to his own Italian text. The Island God (which he suppressed, though its libretto was printed by the Metropolitan Opera and can be found in many libraries) and The Last Savage were the only other operas he wrote in Italian, the rest being in English. Like Wagner, he wrote the libretti of all his operas. His most successful works were composed in the 1940s and 1950s. Menotti also taught at the Curtis Institute of Music.

Menotti wrote the libretti for two of Samuel Barber's operas, Vanessa and A Hand of Bridge, as well as revising the latter for Antony and Cleopatra.

In 1958, he founded the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy; he founded its companion festival in Charleston, South Carolina in 1977. For three weeks each summer, Spoleto is visited by nearly a half-million people. These festivals were intended to bring opera to a popular audience and helped launch the careers of such artists as singer Shirley Verrett and choreographers Paul Taylor and Twyla Tharp. He left Spoleto USA in 1993 to take the helm of the Rome Opera.

In 1984 Menotti was awarded the Kennedy Center Honor for achievement in the arts, and in 1991 he was chosen Musical America's "Musician of the Year". In addition to composing operas to his own texts, on his own chosen subject matter, Menotti directed most productions of his work. He and partner Barber for a time lived in a home in Westchester County, New York, called 'Capricorn'.

Menotti died on February 1, 2007 at the age of 95 in a hospital in Monte Carlo, Monaco, where he had a home. He thought it would be 'naughty' to die in Monte Carlo.

Giorgio Armani

Giorgio Armani born 11 July 1934

Born in Piacenza, Italy, Giorgio Armani is one the greatest fashion designers of the last 50 years and with his couture collections and various diffusion lines has been at the forefront of creating the modern designer as superstar as brand as household name - yet still retaining his class and mystique.

He originally trained in medicine, giving it up to pursue photography before doing his national service in 1957. He then worked as a window dresser in a department store, La Rinascente. From 1961-70 he worked as an in-house designer for Nino Cerruti, leaving to pursue freelance work. In 1974, with his partner Sergio Galeotti, he launched his first Giorgio Armani S.p.A. menswear line, adding womenswear in 1975. Galeotti died from AIDS in 1985, aged only 40.

He is known for elegant, luxurious, clean yet soft tailored lines, often in a palette of classic neutrals, slate greys and navy. His unstructured jackets and unisex women's clothing defined the 80s and gave women a functional and yet feminine business dress - reinventing the trouser suit.




He achieved the breakthrough to international fame through costuming the occasional Hollywood film - notably, Richard Gere in American Gigolo, and The Untouchables.

He remains a popular choice for stars seeking classic elegance on international red carpets, and his many clothing lines, fragrances, accessories and homewares can be found in department stores and on smarter shopping streets worldwide.

Gianni Versace

Gianni Versace born 2 December 1946 (d. 1997)

Giovanni 'Gianni' Versace was a charismatic and accomplished Italian designer of clothing and theatre costumes. He was influenced by Andy Warhol and modern abstract art; and considered one of the most colourful and talented designers of the late 20th century.

Gianni, Santo and Donatella Versace were brought up in Reggio Calabria, by their father and dressmaker mother, Francesca. Gianni began his apprenticeship at a young age, helping his mother find precious stones and gold braid with which to embroider dresses. He studied architecture before moving to Milan at the age of 25 to work in fashion design. In the mid-Seventies, his designs drew the attention of various fashion houses, and a few years later, encouraged by his success Versace presented his first signature collection for women at the Palazzo della Permanente Art Museum of Milan. His first menswear collection followed in September of the same year.

In less than 10 years, Versace built an empire worth $808 million. He used celebrities, including Madonna, Jon Bon Jovi, Tina Turner, and even Tupac Shakur as models for both the runway and print ads.

He was one of the first Italian designers to hire world-class photographers such as Richard Avedon to photograph his advertising campaigns, also using the top fashion models for these ads - Versace was instrumental in the development of the concept of the Supermodel in the 1980s. Versace has been referred to as the rock-and-roll designer and clients include Phil Collins, Bruce Springsteen, George Michael, Eric Clapton, Elton John, and Michael Jackson. He also made clothes for Diana, Princess of Wales and Caroline, Princess of Hanover.

Always open about his sexuality, he often used homoerotic images in his advertising and produced a coffee table book Men Without Ties. His lifestyle was lavish and glamorous.

In 1982, Versace opened a new chapter in his career, making costumes for the cinema, theatre, opera and ballet. He went on to design accessories, jewellery, furnishings, and china. He was also hired as a costume designer on the TV series Miami Vice. This led to his relocation to Miami Beach.

The designer battled with a rare cancer of the inner ear. He was presumed to be in remission when, one July morning in the summer of 1997, returning from his customary walk on Ocean Drive, he was gunned down outside his ocean-front mansion in Miami Beach, Florida. He was murdered by spree killer Andrew Cunanan, who committed suicide shortly after the murder. Police reported that Andrew Cunanan had committed suicide using the same handgun that had been used to murder Gianni Versace.

In September 1997, Versace's brother Santo Versace was announced as the new CEO of the Versace holding. Gianni's sister Donatella Versace, who had always worked closely with him on his designs, is the new head of design.

A distraught Elton John was famously seen at Versace's funeral being comforted by Diana, Princess of Wales.

In 1982, Versace was introduced to a young fashion promoter named Antonio D'Amico and eventually embarked on a long-term relationship that lasted 14 years, until Versace's untimely death. During that time he worked as designer for the Versace sports line.

Versace's will left D'Amico with a lifelong income and the right to live in any of Versace's homes in Italy and the United States. However, the police refused to allow him to accompany Versace to the hospital after the shooting as he wasn't a relative or wife, instead questioning him for hours as he had heard the shot and seen Cunanan flee the scene. Elton John recalled later that D'Amico was not mentioned throughout the Catholic funeral service and he has credited the friendship of Elton John and David Furnish with helping him cope with the aftermath and supporting his new life and career post-Versace.

D'Amico now runs his own fashion design company.

Stefano Gabbana

Stefano Gabbana born 14 November 1962

Stefano Gabbana is an Italian fashion designer and half of the famous duo Dolce&Gabbana [Gabbana left].

Stefano Gabbana was born on November 14, 1962, in Venice, Italy. He studied graphic design.

In 1980, Stefano Gabbana met Domenico Dolce, who had studied fashion, when they worked at the same atelier in Venice. They began to do freelance design in 1982, when they began doing business together. When their first collection was shown in 1986, it received acclaim from around the globe. Four years later, they revealed their premiere menswear collection and opened their first boutique in Milan. Also in 1990, they started designing for the Complice line for the Genny Group in Milan.

Dolce&Gabbana are on the same line of contemporary Italian couture houses as Armani, Gucci, Versace, Prada and Moschino. Sexy and glamorous, hugely popular with Hollywood and celebrities, Dolce&Gabbana have become one of the defining high-end fashion houses of recent years.

Dolce and Gabbana announced in February 2005 that they had split up after 19 years, having been one of the world's most high-profile gay couples. The two remain friends and are still working together. Both say that they are committed to the ongoing success of their fashion house and that they plan to remain partners in the business even though they are no longer together as a couple.

Despite interest from the major fashion conglomerates, Dolce and Gabbana remain in control of their business.

Luchino Visconti

Luchino Visconti born 2 November 1906 (d. 1976)

Luchino Visconti, Duke of Modrone was an Italian theatre and cinema director and writer.

Born into a noble and wealthy family (one of the richest of northern Italy) in Milan. His father was the Duke of Modrone, and Visconti had six siblings. Due to his upbringing, Visconti was able to be exposed to art, music and theatre, and meet some of the forerunners in each, such as the composer Giacomo Puccini, the conductor Arturo Toscanini, and the writer Gabriele D'Annunzio.

In 1936, at the age of 30, he went to Paris and began his film making career as third assistant director in Jean Renoir's Une partie de campagne (1936), thanks to the intercession of a common friend, Coco Chanel. After a short tour to the US, where he visited Hollywood, he returned to Italy to be Renoir's assistant again, this time for La Tosca (1939), a production that was interrupted and later completed by German director Karl Koch because of the war.

Together with Roberto Rossellini, Visconti joined the salotto of Vittorio Mussolini (the son of Benito, at the time the national arbitrator for cinema and other arts) and here presumably met also Federico Fellini. With Gianni Puccini, Antonio Pietrangeli and Giuseppe De Santis he wrote the screenplay for his first film as director: Ossessione (Obsession) (1943), the first Neo-realist movie and an adaptation of the novel The Postman Always Rings Twice.

Visconti was one Neo-realist director who was able to continue working throughout the 1950s, although he veered away from the Neo-realist path with his 1954 film, Senso, which was also filmed in Technicolor. This film takes place in 1866, in Austrian-occupied Venice and is based on the novella by Camillo Boito. Visconti combines realism and romanticism as a way to break away from Neo-realism.

Visconti was also a celebrated theatre director. During the years 1946-1960 he directed many performances of the Rina Morelli-Paolo Stoppa Company, with Vittorio Gassmann, and several operas, including a famous revival of Donizetti's Anna Bolena at La Scala in 1957 with Maria Callas.

Throughout the 1960s, Visconti’s films became more personal. The Leopard (Il Gattopardo), made in 1963, and based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s novel about the decline of the Sicilian aristocracy. It starred American actor Burt Lancaster in the role of Prince Don Fabrizio.

This film was distributed throughout America and England as well, but in the process Twentieth-Century Fox scaled it down, with important scenes completely deleted. These cuts and the poor dubbing quality ensured that the essence of the film was lost in this version. Visconti repudiated it, and took no responsibility for it whatsoever.

He told an American reporter in 1961, “I believe in life, that is the central point ... I believe in organized society. I think it has a chance.” Even when not focusing on sending a message to his audience about war or poverty, Visconti was still dealing with life and all its glory and hardships.

It was not until his 1969 film, The Damned, that Visconti received a nomination for an Academy Award, for Best Screenplay. However, he did not win the award. The film, one of Visconti's best-known works, is about a German industrialist family that slowly begins to disintegrate during World War II. The decadence and lavish beauty were archetypes of Visconti's aesthetic.

In 1971 Visconti directed an acclaimed version of Thomas Mann's Death In Venice starring Dirk Bogarde.

Visconti's final film was The Innocent (1976), which has the reoccurring theme of infidelity and betrayal.

Visconti made no secret of his homosexuality. His last partner was the Austrian actor Helmut Berger, who played Martin in The Damned [pictured above]. Berger also appeared in Visconti's Ludwig in 1972 and Conversation Piece in 1974 along with Burt Lancaster.

Other lovers included Franco Zeffirelli.

Visconti died in Rome of a stroke at the age of 69.