- Girotti, Massimo
- (1918-2003)Actor. After university studies in engineering, Girotti embarked on a career as an athlete, becoming one of the star swimmers of the Lazio team. By chance the swimming coach, Fulvio Jacchia, also worked as a scenographer at Cinecitta and so introduced Girotti to Mario Soldati, who gave him a small part in Dora Nelson (1939). Girotti's physique and good looks soon brought him to the attention of Alessandro Blasetti, who cast him as the good king Licinio and his son, Arminio, in La corona di ferro (The Iron Crown, 1941), following which Roberto Rossellini gave him the lead in Un pilota ritorna (A Pilot Returns, 1942). Then came what would remain Girotti's defining performance, that of Gino, the handsome young tramp, in Luchino Visconti's Ossessione (Obsession, 1943).After the war Girotti took the lead in a number of significant neorealist films, appearing as Michele, the just-married husband whose wife is kidnapped, in Giuseppe De Santis's Caccia tragica (Tragic Hunt, 1947) and as the determined young magistrate in Pietro Germi's In nome della legge (In the Name of the Law, 1949), a powerful performance that earned him the Nastro d'argento. A year later he played Guido in Michelangelo Antonioni's Cronaca di un amore (Story of a Love Affair, 1950) followed by the role of the patriotic marquis, Roberto Ussoni, in Visconti's Senso (The Wanton Countess, 1954).His career then faded somewhat with not much more than appearances in a number of sword-and-sandal epics but was revived when, with his usual acumen, Pier Paolo Pasolini cast him as the father in Teorema (Theorem, 1968) and Bernardo Bertolucci had him play Rosa's lover, Marcel, in Ultimo Tango a Parigi (Last Tango in Paris, 1972). In the following years he continued to appear in a number of minor supporting roles, as in Giuliano Montaldo's LAgnese va a morire (And Agnes Chose to Die, 1976) and Joseph Losey's Monsieur Klein (Mr. Klein, 1976). He then gave a very creditable performance as the Colonel in Ettore Scola's Passione d'amore (Passion of Love, 1981) and played the part of the distinguished resident in Roberto Benigni's Il monstro (The Monster, 1994). A decade later, just before passing away, he crowned a career of solid achievement with his very powerful and sensitive portrayal of the elderly amnesiac survivor of the death camps in Ferzan Ozpetek's La finestra di fronte (Facing Windows, 2003).Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira
Guide to cinema. Academic. 2011.
