Gianfranco Corsi (born February 12, 1923), better known as Franco Zeffirelli, is an Italian film director. He is also an opera director, designer and producer of opera, theatre, motion pictures, and television. Zeffirelli has also been a member of the Italian senate since 1996, representing the Forza Italia party.
Zeffirelli was born and grew up in Florence, in contact with a group of British expatriates who inspired his 1999 film Tea With Mussolini. During the second world war he fought as a partisan before he met up with the British soldiers of the 1st Scots Guards and became their interpreter. In the post war years, he studied art and architecture at the University of Florence, and worked with directors such as Vittorio De Sica, Roberto Rossellini and Luchino Visconti. In the 1960's, he made his name designing and directing his own plays in London and New York, and soon transferred his ideas to cinema.
A known anglophile, in November 2004 he was awarded an honorary knighthood by the United Kingdom, the first Italian citizen to receive the honour.
Selected Filmography
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