Simi, Carlo

(1924-2000)

   Costume, set, art, and production designer. After graduating in architecture from the University of Rome, Simi began working in the film industry as a set decorator, originally on a number of genre films directed by Sergio Corbucci. In 1964, under the pseudonym Charles Simons, he designed the sets and costumes for Sergio Leone's Per un pugno di dollari (For a Fistful of Dollars, 1964) and continued to work with Leone on the latter's subsequent Westerns, receiving special praise for his production and costume design for Cera una volta il West (Once upon a Time in the West, 1968). He then abandoned the cinema for several years in order to work as an architect, designing, among other things, the offices of Alberto Grimaldi's Produzioni Europee Associate (PEA). He returned to the industry in the mid-1970s, working as art director on Sergio Sollima's action thriller Revolver (Blood in the Streets, 1973) and collaborating with comic actor-director Carlo Verdone, for whom he designed the sets and costumes of Un sacco bello (Fun Is Beautiful, 1980). In 1985, having teamed up once again with Leone, Simi received a Nastro d'argento for his production design for Cera una volta l'America (Once upon a Time in America, 1984). His last contribution to Italian cinema was the art direction on Pupi Avati's La via degli angeli (A Midsummer's Night Dance, 1999).

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira