Rossellini, Renzo

(1908-1982)

   Composer. Younger brother of director Roberto Rossellini, Renzo showed an early propensity for musical composition, publishing his first opera with the noted musical firm Ricordi at the age of only 16. After completing his studies at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia, he became director of the Liceo Musicale at Varese and between 1940 and 1942 taught composition at the Pesaro Conservatory. He began composing for films in the mid-1930s, his first scores being for Guido Brignone's L'antenato (The Ancestor, 1936) and Mario Camerini's Il Signor Max (Mister Max, 1937). He wrote the music for another dozen films, including Vittorio De Sica's Rose scarlatte (Red Roses, 1940), Maddalena zero in condotta (Maddalena, Zero for Conduct, 1940), and Teresa Venerdi (Mademoiselle Friday, 1941), before scoring his brother's first feature film, La nave bianca (The White Ship, 1941). He supplied the background music for all of his brother's subsequent films, up to and including Vanina Vanini (1961), and was awarded the Nastro d'argento for his score for Paisa (Paisan, 1947). In 1948 he won his second Nastro d'argento for his music for Giacomo Gentilomo's I fratelli Karamazoff (The Brothers Karamazov, 1947). Rossellini retired from composing for the cinema in the early 1960s, although, due to a curious set of circumstances, he did contribute some music to one of the several versions of Tinto Brass's Caligola (Caligula, 1979).

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira