Marcello Gatti (Rome, February 9, 1924 - Rome, November 26, 2013) was an Italian cinematographer.
He was one of Italy's most important cinematographers. During his long career, he won five Nastri d'argento, photographed two Oscar-nominated films The Battle of Algiers by Gillo Pontecorvo and The Four Days of Naples by Nanni Loy, and another Palme d'Or at Cannes Chronicle of the Embers years; he worked among others with Roman Polanski, Carlo Lizzani, George Pan Cosmatos and Giancarlo Giannini, who chose him for his directorial debut with Ternosecco.
The film for which he is often remembered is The Battle of Algiers (1966), which won the Golden Lion at Venice and had three Oscar nominations, standing out precisely because of a memorable black-and-white, grainy, documentary photography inspired by the style of cinéma vérité [2] that Gatti had already begun to elaborate in Nanni Loy's Le quattro giornate di Napoli (1962), also nominated for an Oscar.
With Pontecorvo he also shot Queimada and Ogro. After the success of The Battle of Algiers Roman Polański entrusted him with his 1972 Italian film Che?, starring Marcello Mastroianni. Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina brought him back to Algeria to make Chroniques des années de braise, Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1975.
Among the more than 150 films he worked on were several poliziotteschi, including Mark the Policeman and The Police Have Their Hands Tied; thrillers such as The Black-Bellied Tarantula; and comedies such as Mr. Robinson, Monstrous Story of Love and Adventure, Bluff - A Tale of Swindles and Swindlers, and Three Tigers vs.
Of the five Nastri d'Argento he obtained, two he won in the same year, 1970, taking the prize both in the black and white category for Ansano Giannarelli's Sierra Maestra and in the color category for Enrico Maria Salerno's Anonimo veneziano. Remaining of his television work are Nanni Loy's Specchio segreto; scripts with Gianni Morandi such as Voglia di cantare; the fifth and sixth series of the crime thriller La piovra with Vittorio Mezzogiorno's poignant farewell; Carlo Lizzani's Assicurazione sulla morte; and Moses with Burt Lancaster.
Always close to the ideals of the left, Gatti was arrested in 1943 for defacing a portrait of Mussolini on the walls of Cinecittà, being sentenced to five years in prison, later changed to confinement; and in 1968 he occupied the Centro sperimentale di cinematografia with students and other Italian film personalities such as Marco Bellocchio and Bernardo Bertolucci. He was a longtime president of the Italian Association of Cinematographers (Aic).
| 1990 | Venere Paura - Director of Photography |
| 1989 | Rouge Venise - Director of Photography |
| 1988 | Una vittoria (TV) - Director of Photography |
| 1987 | Ternosecco - Director of Photography |
| 1985 | Inganni - Director of Photography |
| 1982 | Gian Burrasca - Assistant Camera |
| 1982 | Vent de sable - Assistant Director of Photography |
| 1982 | Delitti, amore e gelosia - Director of Photography |
| 1981 | The Salamander - Director of Photography |
| 1979 | Ogro - Director of Photography |
| 1979 | La carica delle patate - Director of Photography |
| 1978 | Eutanasia di un amore - Director of Photography |
| 1977 | Tre tigri contro tre tigri - Director of Photography |
| 1976 | Il signor Robinson - Mostruosa storia d'amore e d'avventure - Director of Photography |
| 1976 | Bluff - Storia di truffe e di imbroglioni - Director of Photography |
| 1976 | Moses the Lawgiver - Director of Photography |
| 1976 | Chi dice donna, dice donna - Director of Photography |
| 1975 | Chronique des Années de Braise - Director of Photography |
| 1975 | La prima volta, sull'erba - Director of Photography |
| 1975 | Mark il poliziotto - Director of Photography |
| 1975 | La polizia ha le mani legate - Director of Photography |
| 1973 | Amore e ginnastica - Director of Photography |
| 1973 | Rappresaglia - Director of Photography |
| 1973 | Baciamo le mani - Director of Photography |
| 1972 | Che? - Director of Photography |
| 1972 | Girolimoni, il mostro di Roma - Director of Photography |
| 1972 | Il vero e il falso - Director of Photography |
| 1971 | La tarantola dal ventre nero - Director of Photography |
| 1971 | Bastardo, vamos a matar - Director of Photography |
| 1971 | Sin - Director of Photography |
| 1970 | Ciao Gulliver - Director of Photography |
| 1970 | Meçhul Venedikli - Director of Photography |
| 1969 | İsyan - Director of Photography |
| 1969 | Sai cosa faceva Stalin alle donne? - Director of Photography |
| 1969 | Sierra Maestra - Director of Photography |
| 1968 | I protagonisti - Director of Photography |
| 1967 | La notte pazza del conigliaccio - Director of Photography |
| 1966 | L'Estate - Director of Photography |
| 1966 | Las 7 magnificas - Director of Photography |
| 1966 | Cezayir Savaşı - Director of Photography |
| 1966 | La venganza de Clark Harrison - Director of Photography |
| 1965 | Una moglie americana - Second Unit Director of Photography |
| 1965 | Io uccido, tu uccidi - Director of Photography |
| 1965 | La Fuga - Director of Photography |
| 1964 | Bianco, rosso, giallo, rosa - Director of Photography |
| 1964 | Frenesia dell'estate - Director of Photography |
| 1963 | I cuori infranti - Director of Photography |
| 1963 | L'attico - Director of Photography |
| 1962 | Le quattro giornate di Napoli - Director of Photography |
| 1961 | Le italiane e l'amore - Director of Photography |
| 1961 | Le Meraviglie di Aladino - Second Assistant Camera |
| 1961 | Un giorno da leoni - Director of Photography |
| 1960 | Il peccato degli anni verdi - Camera Operator |
| 1960 | Kapò - Camera Operator |
| 1960 | Via Tasso - Director of Photography |
| 1960 | Il bell'Antonio - Camera Operator |
| 1959 | La notte brava - Camera Operator |
| 1959 | Tutti Innamorati - Camera Operator |
| 1958 | Mogli pericolose - Camera Operator |
| 1958 | Giovani mariti - Camera Operator |
| 1957 | Mariti in città - Camera Operator |
| 1957 | La finestra sul Luna Park - Camera Operator |
| 1956 | Lo svitato - Camera Operator |
| 1955 | Cortile - Camera Operator |
| 1955 | Totò e Carolina - Camera Operator |
| 1954 | Lacrime d'amore - Camera Operator |
| 1954 | Violenza sul lago - Camera Operator |
| 1954 | In amore si pecca in due - Camera Operator |
| 1953 | Il sole negli occhi - Camera Operator |
| 1953 | Cronaca di un delitto - Camera Operator |
| 1953 | Cronaca di un delitto - Director of Photography |
| 1952 | Io, Amleto - Camera Operator |
| 1952 | Abracadabra - Camera Operator |
| 1951 | Cameriera bella presenza offresi... - Camera Operator |
| 1950 | Vulcano - Assistant Camera |
| 1948 | Guglielmo Tell - Camera Operator |
| 1943 | Gli assi della risata - Assistant Camera |
| 1943 | Documento Z-3 - Camera Operator |
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