Luciano Tovoli

Highest Rated: 100% We Won't Grow Old Together (1972)

Lowest Rated: 19% Desperate Measures (1997)

Birthday: Oct 30, 1936

Birthplace: Massa Marittima, Grosseto, Italy

Luciano Tovoli's distinct style as a cinematographer has frequently raised the level of source material that, bereft of his contribution, likely would have ended up in the dustbin of cinema history. Take for example "Suspiria," the 1977 horror film about a coven of witches who have infiltrated a ballet academy. The general consensus among critics was that the story made little or no sense, and the performances were middling at best, and yet the film has become a cult classic of the genre due largely to Tovoli's sumptuous feast of set design and color use. In "The Passenger," the brooding story of a war correspondent (Jack Nicholson) without a war was captured exquisitely by Tovoli's photography. As the camera's gaze swept over desolate African and Spanish landscapes, he conveyed the internal despair of the protagonist. Tovoli lent a similar atmosphere to "Before and After," the haunting portrayal of a father struggling to cover up a crime he thinks his son committed. Critics may not have thought much of the writing, but in the film Tovoli enhanced the sense of isolation by lingering gracefully on images of the usually inviting Berkshires buried under a hard, cold winter. Tovoli is a cinematographer with a deep understanding of the movie industry adage: "Show, don't tell."