Giuseppe Taffarel

Giuseppe Taffarel was born in Vittorio Veneto (TV) on March 1, 1922, where he died on April 9, 2012, shortly after celebrating his ninetieth birthday.

From an early age he showed an innate passion for theater. He was self-taught and read plays with predilection. At the age of 19 he arrived in Rome where he attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts directed by Silvio D'Amico. In 1943 he enlisted in the partisan resistance fought in the Belluno-Treviso Prealps. He distinguished himself for his courage in numerous war actions.

In 1946 he returned to Rome, in the golden age of neorealism, frequenting the world of cinema that he found at the Menghi Brothers' trattoria and at the Rosati bar. In the capital, while participating in the writing of numerous screenplays, he began a career as a film actor that saw him act in about twenty films including Achtung! Banditi! by Carlo Lizzani (1951) with Gina Lollobrigida and Giuliano Montaldo. At the end of the 1940s he collaborated with Glauco Pellegrini and Rodolfo Sonego on the making of some documentaries (the most famous are Parliamo del naso, Lezioni di anatomia and L’esperienza del cubismo) and was assistant director on Ceramiche Umbre by Glauco Pellegrini (1949), the first experimental color documentary by Ferraniacolor produced by Lux Film. In 1960 – after having theorized on the birth of the “new documentary cinema” with Michelangelo Antonioni and his friend Vittorio De Seta – he directed his first film La croce shot in Vittorio Veneto and its surroundings.